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THE  LIBRARY 

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THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Commodore  Byron  McCandless 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/colonialcavalierOOgood 


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THE   COLONIAL  CAVALIER 


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Copyright,  lS9i. 
By  United  States  Book  Company. 

Copyrii^ht,  18U5. 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company. 


Presswork  hv  John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambriugb.  U.S.A. 


F 
&-t5 


Eo  mu  ilvifuti, 


MRS.  CRAWFORD    HOWELL   TOY, 

THIS    EFFORT   TO    SKETCH   THE    LIFE    OF     HER     ANCESTORS 
IS    AFFECTIONATELY    INSCRIBED. 


£f  til  in  Arcadia  vixisti. 


957106 


CONTENTS 


Page 

Preface  (The  Colonial  Cavalier) 9 

His  Home 15 

Sweethearts  and  Wives 45 

His  Dress 75 

New^s,  Trade,  and  Travel 97 

His  Friends  and  Foes 125 

His  Amusements •  141 

His  Man-Servants  and  His  Maid-Servants    .     .  .165 

His  Church 189 

His  Education 221 

Laws,  Punishments,  and  Politics 243 

Sickness  and  Death 273 

Notes .........  301 

List  of  Authorities 3i5 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Colonial  Cavalier Frontispiece 

111  his  Home          ■     •  '7 

Hall  in  Carter's  Grove,  James  River,  Va 19 

A  Pioneer 25 

The  Spinning  Wheel 28 

Ye  Minuet 37 

Sweethearts  and  Wives                 47 

"  Brandon,"  James  River,  Va 63 

His  Dress 77 

The  Virginia  Gazette 99 

Ye  "Blaze" io7 

The  Post-rider 116 

The  Indian 127 

Gaming ^43 

The  Spinet 163 

Negro  Servants     ....          167 

Williamsburtj  Church,  Bruton  Parish 191 

Ye  Pulpit 201 

His  Education            ...                     223 

Ye  Stocks         2.V5 

Ye  Pillory 251 

Initial 275 


PREFACE 

THE   COLONIAL   CAVALIER 

Two  great  forces  have  contributed  to  the  mak- 
ing of  the  Anglo-American  character.  The 
types,  broadly  classed  in  England  as  Puritan  and 
Cavalier,  repeated  themselves  in  the  New  World. 
On  the  bleak  Massachusetts  coast,  the  Puritan 
emigrants  founded  a  race  as  rugged  as  their  en- 
vironment. Driven  by  the  force  of  compelling 
conscience  from  their  homes,  they  came  to  the  new 
land,  at  once  pilgrims  and  pioneers,  to  rear  altars 
and  found  homes  in  the  primeval  forest.  It  was 
not  freedom  of  worship  alone  they  sought,  but  their 
own  way.  They  found  it  and  kept  it.  Such  a 
race  produced  a  strong  and  hardy  type  of  man- 
hood, admirable  if  not  always  lovable. 

But  there  was  another  force  at  work,  moulding 
the  national  character,  a  force  as  persistent,  a  type 
as  intense  as  the  Puritan's  own,  and  its  exact  oppo- 
site. The  men  who  settled  the  Southern  Colonies, 
Virginia,  Maryland,  and  the  Carolinas,  were  Cav- 
aliers;  not  necessarily  in  blood,  or  even  in  loyalty 
to  the  Stuart  cause,  but  Cavalier  in  sympathies,  in 
the  general  view  of  life,  in  virtues  and  vices.     So 

9 


Preface. 

far  as  the  provinces  could  represent  the  mother 
country,  Virginia  and  Maryland  reflected  the 
Cavaliers,  as  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  re- 
flected the  Puritans. 

Their  settlers  came,  impelled  by  no  religious  mo- 
tives, and  driven  by  no  persecution.  They  lacked, 
therefore,  the  bond  of  a  common  enthusiasm 
and  the  still  stronger  tie  of  a  comm.on  antipathy. 
Above  all,  they  lacked  the  town-meeting.  Sepa- 
rated by  the  necessities  of  plantation  life,  they 
formed  a  series  of  tiny  kingdoms  rather  than  a 
democratic  community.  To  the  Puritan,  the  vil- 
lage life  of  Scrooby  and  its  like  was  familiar  and 
therefore  dear;  but  to  the  Southern  settlers,  the 
ideal  was  the  great  estate  of  the  English  gentry 
whose  descendants  many  of  them  were. 

The  term,  "Cavalier,"  came  into  vogue  in  the 
struggle  between  Charles  the  First  and  his  Parlia- 
ment, but  the  type  itself  was  already  well-devel- 
oped in  the  reign  of  James,  and  under  the  fostering 
influence  of  Buckingham.  A  great  deal  of  energy 
has  been  wasted  in  the  discussion  as  to  how  much 
of  this  Cavalier  blood  was  found  among  the  early 
settlers.  It  is  enough  that  we  know  that,  between 
the  coming  of  the  first  adventurers  and  the  Res- 
toration, the  number  of  "  gentlemen"  was  sufficient 
to  direct  the  policy  of  the  State,  and  color  the  life 
of  its  society. 


Preface. 

When  the  earliest  colonists  left  England,  the 
Cavalier  was  at  the  height  of  his  glory.  Now  he 
represents  a  lost  cause,  "  and  none  so  poor  to  do 
him  reverence."  The  sceptre  of  royal  authority 
is  shattered ;  society  has  grown  dull  and  decorous. 
Even  in  dress,  the  Puritan  has  prevailed.  The  peo- 
ple who  speak  of  Cromwell's  followers  as  "  Round- 
heads" and  "  Cropped  Ears, "  go  closer  cropped 
than  they,  and  the  costume  of  a  gentleman  of  to- 
day is  uglier  and  gloomier  than  any  the  Puritan 
ever  dreamed  of  introducing. 

These  concessions  of  the  modern  world  make 
the  Puritan  a  familiar  figure,  as  he  stands  out  in 
the  page  of  Hawthorne,  or  on  the  canvas  of  Bough- 
ton.  But  the  Cavalier  fades  into  the  dim  and 
shadowy  background  of  the  past.  We  cannot  af- 
ford to  have  him  slip  away  from  us  so,  if  we  wish 
really  to  understand  the  history  of  our  country; 
we  must  know  both  sides  of  its  development. 

Hitherto,  the  real  comprehension  of  the  Colonial 
Cavalier  has  been  hindered  by  the  florid  enthu- 
siasm of  the  South,  and  the  critical  coldness  of  the 
North.  His  admirers  have  painted  him  as  a 
theatrical  personage,  always  powdered  and  be- 
ruffled,  fighting  duels  as  frequently  as  he  changed 
his  dress,  living  in  lordly  state  in  a  baronial  man- 
sion, or  dancing  in  the  brilliant  halls  of  fashion  in 
the  season  at  the  capital.     All  this  is,  of  course, 

II 


Preface. 

seen  to  be  absurd,  as  one  comes  to  study  the  condi- 
tions under  which  he  lived.  We  find  the  "  capi- 
tal" a  straggling  village,  the  "estate"  a  half-culti- 
vated farm,  and  the  "  host  of  retainers"  often  but 
a  mob  of  black  slaves,  clad  in  motley,  or  l)'ing 
half-naked  in  the  sun.  Does  it  follow,  then,  that 
the  lives  of  these  men  are  not  worth  serious  study? 
Surely  not.  It  is  in  the  very  primitiveness  of  en- 
vironment that  the  chief  interest  of  the  study  of 
that  earl}'  life  lies.  Here  were  men  who  brought 
to  the  New  World  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  luxu- 
ries and  refined  pleasures  of  life,  who  had  not 
eschewed  them  for  conscience's  sake  like  the 
Puritan,  yet  who  relinquished  them  all  bravely 
and  cheerfully,  to  face  the  hardships  and  dangers 
of  a  pioneer  life;  and  when  their  descendants, 
growing  rich  with  the  increasing  prosperity  of  the 
countr}',  had  once  more  surrounded  themselves 
with  beautiful  homes  and  wide  acres,  they  too 
stood  ready  to  sacrifice  them  all  at  the  call  of  Lib- 
erty. If  we  would  understand  Washington,  and 
Jefferson,  and  the  Lees,  George  Mason,  and  John 
Randolph,  we  must  study  them  as  the  "Autocrat" 
tells  us  we  should  all  be  studied,  for  at  least  a 
century  before  birth. 

The  Colonial  Cavalier  must  be  painted,  like  a 
Rembrandt,  with  high  lights  and  deep  shadows. 
It  i.s  idle  to  ignore  his  weaknesses  or  his  vices. 


Preface. 

They  are  of  the  kind  that  insist  on  notice.  Yet, 
with  all  his  faults,  he  will  surely  prove  well 
worth  our  serious  consideration,  and  however 
wide  we  open  our  eyes  to  his  defects,  however 
we  seek  to  brush  away  the  illusions  with  which 
tinsel  hero-worship  has  surrounded  him,  we  shall 
still  find  him,  judged  as  he  has  a  right  to  be,  at 
his  best,  closely  approaching  Lowell's  definition 
of  a  gentleman:  "A  man  of  culture,  a  man  of  in- 
tellectual resources,  a  man  of  public  spirit,  a  man 
of  refinement,  with  that  good  taste  which  is  the 
conscience  of  the  mind,  and  that  conscience  which 
is  the  good  taste  of  the  soul." 

This  little  volume  makes  no  pretensions  to  the 
dignity  of  a  history.  It  aims  only,  through  local 
gossip  and  homely  details  of  life  and  customs,  to 
open  a  side-door,  through  which  we  maj^  per- 
chance, gain  a  sense  of  fireside  intimacy  with 
The  Colonial  Cavalier. 


HIS   HOME 


Colonial  ^^^ 
Cavalier-^ 

His    Home 

I    STOOD    in    the    wide 
hall  of  the   old   brick 
mansion    built,  a    century 
and  a  half  ago,  by  "  King 
Carter,"  on  the  shore  of  the  James  River. 

It  was  Autumn.  The  doors  at  either  end  of  the 
saloon  were  open,  and  their  casements  framed  the 
landscape  like  a  picture.  From  the  foot  of  the 
moss-grown  steps  at  the  rear,  the  drive  stretched 
its  length,  under  several  closed  gates,  for  half  a 
mile,  till  it  joined  the  little  travelled  high-road. 
From  the  porch  in  front,  the  ground  fell  away,  in 
what  had  once  been  a  series  of  terraces,  to  the 
brink  of  the  river,  across  whose  western  hills  the 
November  sun  was  setting  red.  Not  a  ripple 
stirred  the  surface  of  the  water — the  dead  leaves  on 
the  ground  never  rustled.  All  was  still ;  solitary, 
yet  not  melancholy.  The  place  seemed  apart  from 
the  present — a  part  of  the  past. 

Within  doors,  everything  was  mellowed  by  the 
17 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

softening  touch  of  twilight  and  age.  The  hospita- 
ble fire  which  blazed  in  the  great  throat  of  the  li- 
brary chimney,  cast  odd  shadows  on  the  high  wain- 
scot, and  the  delicately  wrought  mouldings  over 
the  chimney-breast,  and  its  reflections  danced  in 
the  small  panes  of  the  heavily  framed  windows  as 
though  the  witches  were  making  tea  outside. 

The  dark  staircase  wound  upward  in  the  centre 
of  the  hallway,  its  handrail  hacked  by  the  swords  of 
soldiers  in  the  Revolution.  As  I  glanced  at  it,  and 
then  out  along  the  wide  avenue,  I  seemed  to  see 
Tarleton's  scarlet-clad  dragoons  dashing  up  to 
surround  the  house.  Then,  as  I  turned  westward, 
imagination  travelled  still  further  into  the  past, 
and  pictured  the  slow  approach  of  a  British 
packet,  gliding  peacefully  up  to  the  little  wharf 
down  yonder,  to  discharge  its  household  freight 
of  tea  and  spices,  of  India  muslins  and  "  callaman- 
coes"  before  it  proceeded  on  its  way  to  the  town 
of  Williamsburg,  a  few  miles  farther  up  the  river. 

At  the  period  of  which  I  was  dreaming,  Wil- 
liamsburg was  the  capital  of  the  province,  with  a 
wide  street  named  in  honor  of  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester,  and  a  college  named  after  their  late 
majesties,  William  and  Mary,  with  a  jolly  Raleigh 
tavern  and  a  stately  Governor's  Palace;  but  all 
this  had  come  about  some  fifty  years  before  the 
building  of  Carter  s  Grove. 

i8 


Carlcr'j    LdJVe 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

In  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  it 
was  far  more  primitive, — indeed,  it  was  not  Wil- 
liamsburg' at  all,  but  only  "The  Middle  Planta- 
tion," with  a  few  pioneer  houses  surrounded  by 
primeval  forests,  from  which  savage  red  faces  now 
and  then  peered  out,  to  the  terror  of  the  settlers; 
while  at  nightfall  the  heavy  wooden  shutters  had 
been  closed,  lest  the  firelight  should  prove  a  shin- 
ing mark  for  the  Indian's  arrow.  If  the  traveller 
found  Williamsburg  in  the  eighteenth  century  "  a 
straggling  village,"  and  its  mansions  "houses  of 
very  moderate  pretensions,"  what  would  he  have 
thought  of  those  first  modest  homes,  where  the 
horse-trough  was  the  family  wash-basin;  where 
stools  and  benches,  hung  against  the  wall,  consti- 
tuted the  furniture;  where  the  kitchen-table  served 
for  dining-table  as  well,  and  was  handsomely  set 
out  with  bowls,  trenchers,  and  noggins  of  wood, 
with  gourds  and  squashes  daintily  cut,  to  add  color 
to  the  meal ;  while  the  family  was  counted  well  ofif 
that  could  muster  a  few  spoons,  and  a  plate  or  two 
of  shining  pewter!  But  those  pioneers  and  their 
wives  felt  pride  in  their  little  homes,  for  they  real- 
ized how  favorably  they  contrasted  with  the  cabins 
built  at  "James  Cittie"  by  Wingfield  and  Smith 
and  their  fellow-adventurers.  They  had  indeed 
more  cause  for  honest  pride  than  the  stay-at-homes 
in   England    could   ever   realize,    for   such   knew 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

nothing  of  the  infinite  toil  and  the  difficulty  of 
founding  a  settlement  in  a  new  country,  thousands 
of  miles  from  civilization,  with  forests  to  be  cleared 
and  savages  to  be  fought,  turbulent  followers  to 
be  ruled,  and  food,  shelter,  and  clothing  to  be 
provided. 

No  sooner  were  the  "Ancient  Planters,"  as  the 
chronicles  call  the  first  settlers,  fairly  ashore  on 
their  island,  than  the  Company  at  home  opened 
its  battery  of  advice  upon  them:  "Seeing  order 
is  at  the  same  price  with  confusion,"  the  secretary 
wrote,  setting  down  a  very  dubious  proposition  as 
an  aphorism,  "  it  shall  be  advisabl)'  done  to  set 
your  houses  even  and  by  a  line,  that  your  streets 
may  have  a  good  breadth,  and  be  carried  square 
about  your  market-place,  and  every  street's  end 
opening  into  it,  that  from  thence,  with  a  few  field- 
pieces,  you  may  command  every  street  through- 
out; which  market-place  )'ou  may  also  fortify,  if 
you  think  it  needful.''  It  must  have  seemed  grimly 
humorous  to  those  pioneers,  huddling  their  cabins 
together  within  the  shelter  of  the  wooden  fence, 
dignified  by  the  name  of  a  palisade,  and  mounted 
with  all  the  guns  they  could  muster,  to  be  thus 
advised  from  a  distance  of  three  thousand  miles 
to  construct  at  once  a  model  English  village,  and 
fortify  the  market-place,  //  they  thought  best.  An 
Italian  proverb  has  it  that  "  it  is  easy  to  threaten 


The  Colonial  Caxalicr. 

a  bull  from  a  window, "  and  so  the  Vir^nnia  Com- 
pany found  no  difficulty  in  regulating  the  affairs 
of  the  colonists  and  the  Indians,  from  their  window 
in  London.  The  settlers  paid  as  little  heed  as 
possible  to  their  interference,  and  struggled  on 
through  the  sickness  and  the  starving-time,  as  best 
they  could,  clearing  away  the  brush,  and  felling 
trees,  and  putting  up  houses.  But  building 
went  on  so  slowly  that  in  1619,  "  In  James  Cittie 
were  only  those  houses  that  Sir  Thomas  Gates 
built  in  the  tyme  of  his  government  (16 10),  with 
one  wherein  the  governor  allwayes  dwelt,  and  a 
church  built  wholly  at  the  charge  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  citye,  of  timber,  being  fifty  foote  in 
length  and  twenty  in  breadth."  The  report  from 
the  town  of  Henrico  was  still  less  encouraging,  for 
there  were  found  only  "  three  old  houses,  a  poor 
ruinated  church,  with  some  few  poore  buildings 
on  the  islande. " 

Yet,  in  spite  of  hindrances  and  drawbacks,  the 
colony  prospered.  Lord  De  la  Warre  reported 
that  all  the  enterprise  needed  was  "  a  few  honest 
laborers  burdened  with  children" ;  and  such  allur- 
ing inducements  were  held  out  to  immigrants,  that 
I  cannot  understand  how  the  London  poor,  swarm- 
ing in  their  black  alleys,  could  resist  the  invita- 
tion to  come  over  to  a  land  where  pure  air  and 
plenty  were  to  be  had  for  nothing.      Ralph  Hamor 

23 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

wrote  home :  "  The  affairs  of  the  colony  being  so 
well  ordered  and  the  hardest  tasks  already  over- 
past, that  whosoever,  now  or  hereafter,  shall  hap- 
pily arrive  there,  shall  finde  a  handsome  house  of 
some  four  roomes  or  more,  if  he  have  a  family,  to 
repose  himselfe  in,  rent-free,  and  twelve  English 
acres  of  ground  adjoining  thereunto,  very  strongly 
impailed;  which  ground  is  only  allotted  unto  him 
for  roots,  gardaine-herbs  and  corne ;  neither  shall 
he  need  to  provide  himselfe  victuals.  He  shall 
have  for  himselfe  and  family  a  competent  twelve- 
months' provision  delivered  unto  him. "  In  addi- 
tion to  all  this,  the  colonist  was  to  be  furnished 
with  tools  of  all  sorts,  and  "  for  his  better  subsist- 
ence, he  shall  have  poultry  and  swine,  and  if  he 
prefer,  a  goate  or  two,  and  perhaps  a  cowe  given 
him."  I  am  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  all  Eng- 
land did  not  emigrate  at  once  to  the  land  where 
such  a  gift-enterprise  was  on  foot.  Perhaps  the 
readers  distrusted  Hamor's  authority;  perhaps 
they  thought  some  extraordinary  risks  or  dangers 
must  lurk  behind  such  fair  promises,  and  when 
the  Indian  massacre  came,  they  possibly  nodded 
their  wise  heads  and  said,  "  I  told  you  so." 

The  agent  of  the  Maryland  Company  worked  on 
a  very  different  system  from  this  gilded  Virginia 
offer.  He  published  a  pamphlet  giving  detailed 
directions  to  "  intending  settlers. "     They  were  not 

24 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

to  depend  on  the  resources  of  the  colony,  even  for 
the  first  year,  but  to  bring  with  them  laborers  and 
watch-dogs,  grains  and  seeds  of  all  kinds,  and  meal 
enough  to  last  while  their  houses  were  a-building. 
I  find  that  I  gain  the  best  idea  of  what  these  first 
houses  in  America  were  like,  by  asking  myself 
how  I  should  have  built,  in  the  conditions  under 
which  the  settlers  worked,  dropped  down  in  a 
little  forest-clearing,  the  ocean  before  and  the  In- 
dians behind,  with  few  and  imperfect  tools,  and 
with  a  pressure  all  the  while  of  securing  food  for 
to-day,  and  sowing  grain  for  to-morrow.  I  am  sure 
I  should  have  put  up  a  shelter  of  the  rudest  kind 
that  could  be  trusted  to  withstand  the  winds  of 
Autumn,  and  the  storms  of  Winter.  I  should  not 
have  planed  my  beams,  nor  matched  my  floor- 
boards. Only  my  doors  and  shutters  I  should  have 
made  both  strong  and  stout,  to  meet  the  gales  from 
the  sea,  or  a  sudden  dash  from  lurking  savages  in 
the  bush.  This  I  find,  therefore,  without  surprise, 
was  just  what  the  settlers  did.  They  divided  the 
house  into  a  kitchen  and  a  bedroom,  with  a  shed 
joined  on  for  the  goats  and  pigs,  or,  if  the  owner 
were  so  lucky,  a  cow.  Their  chimneys  were 
chiefly  constructed  out  of  twigs  plastered  on 
both  sides  with  clay,  which  dried  in  the  sun,  and 
served  for  some  time,  before  it  crumbled  again  to 
dust.     As  there  were  no  mills,  the  corn-grinding 

27 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

had  to  be  done  at  home;  so  the  settlers,  learning 
the  trick  from  the  Indians,  improvised  a  mortar,  by 
burning  out  the  stump  of  a  tree  into  a  hollow,  and 
hanging  over  it  a  log,  suspended  from  the  limb  of 
a  tree  close  at  hand,  for  a  pestle.  This  was  hard 
work,  and  the  grinding  in  the  little  hand-mills 
brought  from  England  was  scarcely  easier.  A 
dying  man,  leaving  his  children  to  their  uncle's 
care,  expressly  stipulated  that  they  should  not  be 
put  to  the  drudgery  of  pounding  corn. 

Within    the    house,  stood    the    great  and  small 
wheels  for  wool  and   flax,  the  carding-comb  and 


the  moulds  for  making  those  candles,  of  green 
myrtleberry  wax  which,  as  Beverley  writes,  "  are 
never  greasie  to  the  touch,  nor  melt  with  lying 
in  the  hottest  weather.     Neither  does  the  snuff  of 

28 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

these  ever  offend  the  smell,  like  that  of  a  tallow- 
candle  ;  but  instead  of  being  disagreeable,  if  an 
accident  puts  a  candle  out,  it  yields  a  pleasant  fra- 
grancy  to  all  that  are  in  the  room,  insomuch  that 
nice  people  often  put  them  out  on  purpose  to  have 
the  incense  of  the  expiring  snuff. " 

It  was  no  pitiable  life  that  those  pioneers  lived, 
even  in  those  most  primitive  days.  Their  out-of- 
door  existence  was  full  of  a  wild  charm,  and  their 
energy  soon  improved  conditions  indoors.  Every 
ship  from  England  brought  over  conveniences 
and  luxuries.  The  cabin  was  exchanged  for  a 
substantial  house.  First  pewter,  and  then  silver 
plate  began  to  shine  on  sideboards  of  polished 
oak.  Four-post  bedsteads  decorated  the  sleeping 
rooms,  and  tapestry  curtains  kept  out  the  cold. 

A  Maryland  record  of  1653  tells  of  a  bargain 
between  T.  Wilford  and  Paul  Sympson,  by  which, 
in  consideration  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  to- 
bacco received  from  Sympson,  Wilford  agrees  to 
support  him  for  the  rest  of  his  life  "like  a  gentle- 
man." This  gentleman-like  provision  consisted  of 
a  house  fifteen  feet  square,  with  a  Welsh  chimney, 
and  lined  with  riven  boards;  a  handsome  joined 
bedstead,  bedding  and  curtains;  one  small  table, 
six  stools,  and  three  wainscot  chairs;  a  servant  to 
wait  on  him;  meat,  apparel,  and  washing:  and 
every  year  an  anker  (ten  gallons)  of  drams,  one 

29 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

tierce  of  sack,  and  a  case  of  English  spirits  for  his 
own  use. 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  what  more  of  luxury,  an 
annuity  could  furnish  to  a  gentleman  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  if  indeed  Heaven  had  blessed  him 
with  a  stomach  capable  of  consuming  such  an  "  in- 
tolerable deal  of  sack." 

The  next  fifty  years  still  further  increased  the 
elegance  of  living;  and  style  as  well  as  comfort 
began  to  be  considered.  In  an  inventory  of  house- 
hold goods  belonging  to  a  Virginian  in  1698,  I 
find  included,  "  a  feather-bed,  one  sett  Kittermin- 
ster  curtains,  and  Vallens  bedstead,  one  pair  white 
linen  sheets  with  two  do.  pillow  biers,  2  Rusha- 
leather  chaires,  5  Rush-bottom  chaires,  a  burning 
glass,  a  flesk  fork,  and  6  Alchemy  spoones"  (al- 
chemy being  a  mixed  metal,  originally  supposed 
to  be  gold  made  by  magic).  In  addition  to  these 
articles,  the  list  includes  a  brass  skimer  and  2  pairs 
of  pot-hooks,  and,  as  its  crowning  glory,  "  i  old 
silver  Dram-cup."  No  doubt  the  possessor  had 
sat  with  his  boon  companions  on  many  a  cold 
night,  by  the  great  chimney,  plunging  the  hot 
poker  into  the  fire. — 

"And  nursed  the  loggerhead,  whose  hissing  dip, 
Timed  by  nice  instinct,  creamed  the  mug  of  flip." 

The  house  of  a  planter  in  Virginia  at  the  end 
of  the    seventeenth  century,  was   substantial    and 

.30 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

comfortable.  The  inventory  of  such  a  planter  men- 
tions, as  belonging  to  the  homestead,  a  "parlor 
chamber,  chamber  over  sd.  chamber,  chamber  over 
the  parlor,  nursery,  old  nursery,  room  over  the 
Ladyes  chamber,  Ladyes  chamber,  entry,  store, 
home  house  quarter,  home  house,  quarter  over  the 
creek,  Smiths  shopp,  Barne,  kitchen,  Dary,  cham- 
ber over  the  old  Dary,  flemings  quarter,  Robin- 
sons quarter,  Whitakers  quarter,  Black  Wallnut 
Quarter." 

By  this  time,  the  house  of  the  rich  in  the  towns 
boasted  a  parlor,  but  its  furnishing  was  of  the 
simplest.  A  white  floor  sprinkled  with  clean 
white  sand,  large  tables,  and  heavy  high-backed 
chairs  of  solid,  dark  oak  decorated  a  parlor  enough 
for  anybody,  says  the  chronicler  of  Baltimore. 
William  Fitzhugh  directs  Mistress  Sarah  Bland 
in  London  (1682)  to  procure  him  a  suit  of  tapestry 
hangings  for  a  room  twenty  feet  long,  sixteen  feet 
wide,  and  nine  feet  high  ;  "  and  half  a  dozen  chairs 
suitable." 

The  kitchen  had  long  ago  been  separated  from 
the  dining-room,  and,  in  the  better  houses,  set  off 
in  a  separate  building,  that  its  odours  might  not 
fill  the  other  rooms  when  warm  weather  made 
open  doors  and  windows  necessary.  The  dining- 
room,  with  its  broad  buffet,  its  well-iilled  cel- 
larette,  its  silver  plate,  and  its  quaint  old  Eng- 

31 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

lish  furniture,  was  generally  the  pleasantest  room 
in  the  house.  Opening  out  of  the  dining-room, 
between  it  and  the  parlor,  ran  the  wide  h^ll,  with 
doors  at  either  end,  with  carved  stairway  and  pan- 
elled walls,  often  hung  with  family  portraits. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  Spotswood 
came  over  as  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  a  new  era 
of  more  elaborate  living  was  introduced.  His 
"palace"  at  Williamsburg,  according  to  the  con- 
temporary report  of  the  Reverend  Hugh  Jones — 
not  to  be  taken,  however,  without  a  grain  of  salt — 
was  "  a  magnificent  structure,  built  at  the  publick 
expense,  furnished  and  beautified  with  gates,  fine 
gardens,  offices,  walks,  a  fine  canal,  orchards,  etc," 
and  most  impressive  of  all,  in  those  days,  when  Sir 
Christopher  Wren  set  the  architectural  fashions,  "  a 
cupola  or  lanthorn"  illuminated  on  the  King's 
birthnight,  or  other  festival  occasion.  At  Ger- 
manna,  a  little  settlement  of  Germans  clustered 
round  the  Spotswood  iron-works,  the  Governor 
built  him  a  house  so  fine  that  Colonel  Byrd  speaks 
of  it  as  The  Enchanted  Castle,  and  has  left  an  amus- 
ing account  of  a  visit  he  made  him  there.  "  I  ar- 
rived," he  says,  "about  three  o'clock,  and  found 
only  Mrs.  Spotswood  at  home.  I  was  carried  into 
a  room  elegantly  set  oflt  with  pier  glasses,  the 
largest  of  which  came  soon  after  to  an  odd  mis- 
fortune.     Amongst   other   favorite   animals   that 

32 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

cheered  this  lady's  solitude,  a  brace  of  tame  deer 
ran  familiarly  about  the  house,  and  one  of  them 
came  to  stare  at  me  as  a  stranger.  Biit  unluckily, 
spying  his  own  figure  in  the  glass,  he  made  a 
spring  over  the  tea-table  that  stood  under  it  and 
shattered  the  glass  to  pieces,  and,  falling  back  upon 
the  tea-table,  made  a  terrible  fracas." 

What  a  change  is  here,  from  the  hewn  timbers 
and  bare  walls  and  wooden  trenchers  of  the  pioneer, 
to  enchanted  castles  and  mirrors,  and  china  and 
tea-tables! 

This  Colonel  Byrd,  who  writes  so  genially  of  his 
visit  to  Germanna,  was  a  typical  cavalier — not 
godly,  but  manly — with  a  keen  enjoyment  of  a 
jest,  as  the  pucker  at  the  corners  of  the  lips  in  his 
portrait  clearly  shows,  with  a  hearty  good-will 
toward  his  neighbor  and  especially  his  neighbor's 
wife,  with  a  fine,  healthy  appetite,  and  a  zest  for 
all  good  things  to  eat  and  drink.  In  his  boundary- 
line  trip  to  Carolina  and  his  journey  to  the 
mines,  he  smacks  his  lips  over  the  fat  things  that 
fall  in  his  way.  Now  it  is  a  prime  rasher  of 
bacon,  fricasseed  in  rum ;  now  a  capacious  bowl  of 
bombo.  In  one  and  the  same  paragraph,  he  tells 
how  he  commended  his  family  to  the  care  of  the 
Almighty,  fortified  himself  with  a  beefsteak,  and 
kissed  his  landlady  for  good  luck,  before  setting 
out  on  his  travels. 

33 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

Roughing  it  in  camp,  he  dreams  of  the  fine 
breakfast  he  will  make  on  a  fat  doe,  and  a  two- 
year-old  bear,  killed  over  night.  At  a  stopping- 
place  he  records,  "  Our  landlady  cherished  us  with 
roast-beef  and  chicken-pie."  Having  eaten  these 
with  a  relish,  he  pours  down  a  basin  of  chocolate, 
wishes  peace  to  that  house,  and  takes  up  his  line 
of  march  for  home.  There  is  something  refreshing 
to  our  jaded  generation  in  the  hearty  enjoyment 
that  our  ancestors  took  in  their  food. 

I  am  struck  in  all  these  old  gastronomic  records 
with  the  immense  amount  of  meat,  in  proportion 
to  the  vegetables  used.  No  wonder  gout  was  a 
common  disease,  and  the  overheated  blood  needed 
to  be  reduced  by  cupping  and  leeching.  The  out- 
of-door  life,  the  riding  and  hunting  of  Maryland 
and  Virginia,  enabled  the  men  to  eat  freely  and 
drink  deep,  and  the  Southern  table  was  always 
lavishly  provided.  A  foreigner  having  remarked 
of  Mrs.  Madison  that  her  table  was  like  a  Harvest- 
Home,  she  replied  that,  as  the  profusion  which 
amused  the  visitor  was  the  outgrowth  of  her  coun- 
try's prosperity,  she  was  quite  willing  to  sacrifice 
European  elegance  to  Virginia  liberality.  Good 
housekeeping  in  those  days  consisted  chiefly  in 
setting  a  bountiful  table,  and  the  Colonial  dame, 
in  spite  of  her  troop  of  servants,  was  kept  busy  in 
planning  the  meals,  the  breakfasts  of  hot  bread 

34 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

and  griddle-cakes,  the  afternoon  dinner,  and  "  the 
bite  before  bedtime."  To  her  it  fell,  to  carry  the 
keys,  to  portion  out  the  rations  for  the  negro  quar- 
ters, and  to  lay  aside  the  materials  from  which  the 
turbanned  queen  of  the  kitchen  should  compound 
the  savory  sausage,  the  fried  chicken,  the  sauces, 
and  dumplings,  and  cakes,  which  have  made 
Southern  cooking  famous. 

The  domestic  life  of  women  on  those  old  planta- 
tions must  have  been  rather  monotonous.  The 
travellers  who  visited  them,  describe  them  as  shar- 
ing little  in  the  amusements  of  their  husbands,  and 
brothers,  and  sons.  Chastellux  says  that,  like  the 
English,  they  are  very  fond  of  their  infants,  but 
care  little  for  their  children;  but  the  annals  and 
biographies  do  not  bear  out  his  statement.  George 
Wythe  learned  his  Greek  at  home,  from  a  Testa- 
ment, while  his  mother  held  an  English  copy  in 
her  hand  and  prompted  him  as  he  went  on.  John 
Mason,  too,  bore  through  life  the  impress  of  his 
mother's  influence.  He  was  only  seven  years  old 
when  she  died,  yet  through  life,  "  mother's  room" 
was  perfectly  distinct  to  him,  the  old  chest  of  draw- 
ers distinguished  as  ^own  drawer,  shirt  drawer,  and 
jacket  drawer,  the  closet  known  as  mistress' 
closet,  containing  his  mother's  dresses,  and  another 
cupboard,  known  as  the  closet,  in  which  hung  a 
small  green  horsewhip  with  a  silver  head,  carried 

35 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

by  Mrs.  Mason  when  she  rode,  and  on  other  oc- 
casions used  for  purposes  of  correction,  so  that  the 
children  nicknamed  it  "the  green  doctor."  An 
old  letter  recalls  another  "  mother's  room"  in  those 
eighteenth-century  days:  "  On  one  side  sits  the 
chambermaid  with  her  knitting;  on  the  other  a 
little  colored  pet,  learning  to  sew.  An  old  decent 
woman  is  there,  with  her  table  and  shears,  cutting 
out  the  negroes'  winter  clothes,  while  the  old  lady 
directs  them  all,  incessantly  knitting." 

Home,  rather  than  Church,  was  the  sacred  spot 
to  the  Colonial  Cavalier,  in  spite  of  his  theoretical 
reverence  for  Mother  Church.  It  was  at  home 
that  most  of  the  baptisms  and  funerals  occurred, 
and  Hugh  Jones  complains  that  "  in  houses  also 
they  most  commonly  marry,  without  regard  to  the 
time  of  the  day,  or  season  of  the  year."  The  cen- 
tral idea  of  the  Puritan  religion  was  fear  of  God; 
the  centre  of  the  Cavalier's  religion  was  love  of 
man.  From  this  root  sprung  a  radiant  cheerful- 
ness, an  open-handed  liberality,  and  an  unbounded 
hospitality.  If  it  be  true  that  the  best  ornaments 
of  a  house  are  its  guests,  never  were  houses  more 
brilliantly  decorated  than  those  Southern  man- 
sions. The  names  of  Brandon,  and  Berkeley,  and 
Westover,  and  Mont  Clare,  and  Doughoregan  call 
up  the  procession  of  guests  who  have  walked,  and 
danced,   and  dined,  and   slept   under  their  roofs. 

36 


^e     Minuet  , 


<■  V 


'^Ujjf 


'~^'  ^\  •'•■■■■       (  -    ^^^. 


^ j^ 


J? ->  \ 


The  Colonial    Cavalier. 

We  see  stately  men,  in  lace  and  ruffles,  pacing  the 
minuet  with  powdered  dames,  in  "  teacup  time  of 
hood  and  hoop,  and  when  the  patch  was  worn." 
We  see  lovers  and  maidens,  brides  and  bride- 
grooms spending  the  honeymoon  under  the  shel- 
tering trees,  and  patriot  Continentals  arming  in 
their  halls  for  the  struggle  with  the  enemies  of 
their  country. 

Not  the  lofty  alone,  but  the  lowly  as  well,  could 
claim  a  welcome  at  those  always  open  doors.  In- 
dians, half-breeds,  and  leather-clad  huntsmen  hung 
round  the  kitchen  of  Greenaway  Court,  while 
Washington  and  Lord  Fairfax  dined  in  the  saloon. 
Not  even  acquaintance  was  considered  necessary 
to  ensure  a  cordial  reception.  "  The  inhabitants," 
wrote  Beverley,  "are  very  courteous  to  travellers, 
who  need  no  other  recommendation  than  being 
human  creatures.  A  stranger  has  no  more  to  do 
but  to  inquire  upon  the  road  where  any  gentleman 
or  good  housekeeper  lives,  and  there  he  may  de- 
pend upon  being  received  with  hospitality.  This 
good-nature  is  so  general  among  their  people,  that 
the  gentry,  when  they  go  abroad,  order  their  prin- 
cipal servants  to  entertain  all  visitors  with  every- 
thing the  plantation  affords;  and  the  poor  planters 
who  have  but  one  bed,  will  often  sit  up,  or  lie  upon 
a  form,  or  couch,  all  night, to  make  room  for  a  weary 
traveller  to  repose  himself  after  his  journey." 

39 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

In  Winter,  the  fire  blazed  high  on  the  hearth, 
and  the  toddy  hissed  in  the  noggin ;  in  Summer,  the 
basket  of  fruit  stood  in  the  breeze-swept  hall,  and 
lightly  clad  black  boys  tripped  in,  bearing  cool 
tankards  of  punch  and  sangaree.  The  guest  need 
only  enter  in,  to  be  at  home.  No  one  was  consid- 
ered so  contemptible,  as  he  who  consented  to  re- 
ceive money  for  entertaining  visitors.  Keeping 
an  inn  or  "  ordinary"  was  looked  upon  askance, 
and  the  law  dealt  with  the  proprietor  rigorously, 
as  with  one  who  probably  would  cheat  if  he  got  a 
chance.  His  charges  were  carefully  regulated, 
and  he  was  subject  to  fine,  and  even  imprisonment, 
if  he  went  beyond  them.  A  Maryland  statute 
provides  that  "  noe  Ordinary-Keeper  within  this 
Province  shall  at  any  Time  charge  anything  to 
account  for  Boles  of  Punch,  but  shall  only  Sell  the 
Severall  Ingredients  to  the  Said  Mixture  accord- 
ing to  the  Rates  before  in  this  Act  Ascertained." 
A  traveller,  in  those  good  old  days,  might  ride 
from  ^Maryland  to  Georgia,  and  never  put  up  at 
an  Ordinary  at  all,  sure,  whenever  he  wished  to 
stop  by  the  way,  of  a  cordial  welcome  at  a  private 
house.  Some  planters  even  kept  negroes  posted 
at  their  gate,  to  give  warning  of  a  rider's  ap- 
proach, that  he  might  be  invited  in,  and  that  the 
household  might  be  in  readiness  to  receive  him. 

Such  promiscuous  hospitality  could  only  exist 
40 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

in  a  community  with  a  happy  faculty  for  taking 
life  easily,  an  ability  to  dispense  with  the  slavery 
to  method,  and  to  be  contented  though  things 
went  wrong.  The  fastidious  European  found  some 
of  the  manners  and  customs  a  little  trying.  "In 
private  houses  as  well  as  inns,"  writes  a  traveller, 
"  several  people  are  crowded  together  in  the  same 
room  ;  and  in  the  latter  it  very  commonly  happens 
that  after  you  have  been  some  time  in  bed,  a 
stranger  of  any  condition  comes  into  the  room, 
pulls  ofi.  his  clothes,  and  places  himself  without 
ceremony  between  your  sheets." 

Another  visitor  says  that  the  Virginia  houses 
are  spacious,  but  the  apartments  are  not  commo- 
dious, "and  they  make  no  ceremony  of  putting 
three  or  four  persons  into  the  same  room,  nor  do 
these  make  any  objections  to  being  thus  heaped 
together." 

The  Colonial  Cavalier  was  gregarious  by  nature. 
He  was  warmly  social,  and,  being  so  much  shut  off 
by  plantation  life  from  intercourse  with  his  fel- 
lows, he  welcomed  a  guest  as  a  special  providence, 
to  relieve  the  monotony  of  his  life.  The  gentle- 
man-planter in  affluent  circumstances  had  nothing 
to  do,  and  he  did  it  in  a  very  leisurely  way.  His 
occupations  were  such  as  could  be  shared  by  a 
guest.  An  observant  traveller  has  left  us  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  daily  routine  of  such  an  individual : 

41 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

"  He  rises  about  nine  o'clock.  He  may  perhaps 
make  an  excursion  to  walk  as  far  as  his  stable  to 
see  his  horses,  which  is  seldom  more  than  fifty 
yards  from  his  house.  He  returns  to  breakfast 
between  nine  and  ten,  which  is  generally  tea  or 
coffee,  bread  and  butter,  and  very  thin  slices  of 
venison,  ham,  or  hung  beef.  He  then  lies  down 
on  a  pallet  on  the  floor  in  the  coolest  room  in  the 
house,  in  his  shirt  and  trousers  only,  with  a  negro 
at  his  head,  and  another  to  fan  him  and  keep  off 
the  flies.  Between  twelve  and  one,  he  takes  a 
draught  of  toddy  or  bombo,  a  liquor  composed  of 
water,  sugar,  rum  and  nutmeg,  which  is  made 
weak,  and  kept  cool.  He  dines  between  two  and 
three,  and  at  every  table,  whatever  else  there  may 
be,  a  ham  and  greens,  or  cabbage,  is  always  a 
standing  dish.  At  dinner  he  drinks  cider,  toddy, 
punch,  port,  claret,  and  Madeira,  which  is  gener- 
ally excellent  here.  Having  drunk  some  few 
glasses  of  wine  after  dinner,  he  returns  to  his 
pallet,  with  his  two  blacks  to  fan  him,  and  contin- 
ues to  drink  toddy  or  sangaree  all  the  afternoon. 
He  does  not  always  drink  tea.  Between  nine  and 
ten  in  the  evening,  he  eats  a  light  supper  of  milk 
and  fruit  or  wine,  sugar  and  fruit,  etc.,  and  al- 
most immediately  retires  to  bed  for  the  night." 

All  this  sounds  as  if  Smyth  must  have  made  his 
visit  to  Virginia  in  midsummer,  and  fancied  that 

42 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

the  habits  were  the  same  all  the  year  round,  as  in 
that  semi-tropical  season.  As  a  picture,  it  is  truer 
of  Carolina  than  of  any  section  farther  North.  As 
we  go  South  we  find  the  character  more  indolent, 
the  energies  more  relaxed,  and  even  the  houses 
changing  their  expression.  The  stately  brick 
manor-houses,  modelled  on  the  English  mansion, 
with  their  deep  mullioned  windows  and  heavy 
doors,  give  place  to  Italian  villas,  with  white  pil- 
lars and  porches  gleaming  from  their  green  points 
of  land  up  and  down  the  rivers.  Under  this  shady 
porch  the  planter  might  lie  at  his  ease,  w'atching 
the  boats  on  the  streams  as  they  come  and  go, 
and  breathing  the  perfume  from  the  garden  at  his 
feet.  The  garden  of  those  days  was  laid  out  also 
on  the  Italian  pattern,  in  shapes  of  horseshoes,  or 
stars,  or  palm-leaves,  with  avenues  leading  down 
bordered  by  tulip  trees,  with  box-hedged  paths, 
wherein  Corydon  and  Phyllis  might  wander,  quite 
hidden  from  the  lounger  on  the  portico.  In  its 
centre  stood  often  a  summer-house,  where  succes- 
sive generations  plighted  troth,  and  exchanged 
love-tokens.  Everything  about  the  garden,  as 
about  the  house,  suggested  England.  The  lawn 
was  sown  with  the  seed  of  the  silvery  grass,  so 
familiar  in  the  great  English  parks.  Even  birds 
were  imported  from  the  mother  country.  When 
Spotswood   came   over,   he   brought   with   him  a 

43 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

number  of  larks  to  delight  his  ears  with  their 
familiar  strain,  but  either  the  climate  was  unpro- 
pitious,  or  the  stronger  native  birds  resented  the 
coming  of  the  foreigners,  for  the  larks  died  out, 
and  left  only  here  and  there  a  lonely  descendant 
to  startle  the  traveller  as  he  rode  along  the  solitary 
forest  roads  at  sunrise,  with  a  flow  of  melody  that 
called  up  the  leafy  lanes  of  the  old  home. 

44 


SWEETHEARTS  AND  WIVES 


^•..    SWEETE  — 
HEA" 
RT 


THE  first  settlers  in  America  had  no  homes, 
for  the  first  requisite  for  a  home  is  a  wife. 
They  soon  learned  that  "  a  better  half,  alone,  gives 
better  quarters. "  The  Indian  squaws  were  almost 
the  only  women  know^n  to  the  voyagers  on  the 
Susan  Co7ista7it  and  her  sister  ships;  and  though  the 
adventurers  wrote  home  in  glowing  terms  of  their 
dusky  charms,  they  looked  askance  upon  the  idea 
of  marriage  with  the  heathen  natives.  We  cannot 
help,  however,  echoing  the  sentiments  of  Colonel 
Byrd  of  Westover,  when  he  says:  "  Morals  and  all 
considered,  I  can't  think  the  Indians  much  greater 
heathens  than  the  first  adventurers,"  who,  he  adds, 

47 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

"had  they  been  good  Christians,  would  have  had 
the  charity  to  take  this  only  method  of  converting 
the  natives  to  Christianity.  For,  after  all  that 
can  be  said,  a  sprightly  lover  is  the  most  prevail- 
ing missionary  that  can  be  sent  amongst  these, 
or  any  other  infidels.  Besides,"  he  proceeds  can- 
didly, "  the  poor  Indians  would  have  had  less  rea- 
son to  complain  that  the  English  took  away  their 
lands,  if  they  had  received  them  by  way  of  portion 
with  their  daughters." 

It  was,  in  truth,  a  great  benefit  both  to  the 
English  and  to  the  Indians,  when  "  Bright-Stream- 
Between-two-Hills" — called  in  the  native  dialect 
"  Pocahontas" — married  John  Rolfe,  with  the  ap- 
probation of  both  races.  To  this  union  some  of  the 
proudest  families  in  Virginia  trace  their  descent. 
Poor  little  Princess !  The  first  romance  of  America 
casts  its  pathetic  charm  around  you.  However 
apocryphal  the  legend  of  your  saving  Smith's  life, 
it  is  hard  to  resist  the  impression  of  your  cherishing 
a  sentimental  attachment  for  the  gallant  captain, 
and  a  suspicion  that  you  were  tricked  into  a 
marriage  with  Rolfe. 

Smith  records  a  sad  interview  with  Pocahontas 
when  she  was  being  lionized,  under  the  name  of 
Lady  Rebecca,  as  a  royal  visitor  in  London. 
"  Being  about  this  time  preparing  to  set  sail  for 
New  England,"  he   writes,  "I  could   not   stay  to 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

do  her  that  service  I  desired,  and  she  well  de- 
served; but,  hearing  she  was  at  Bradford  with 
divers  of  my  friends,  I  went  to  see  her.  After  a 
modest  salutation  without  any  bow,  she  turned 
about,  obscured  her  face  as  not  seeming  well  con- 
tented. But  not  long  after,  she  began  to  talk,  and 
remembered  me  well  what  courtesies  she  had  done, 
saying:  'You  did  promise  Powhatan  what  was 
yours  should  be  his,  and  he  the  like  to  you;  you 
called  him  Father — being  in  his  land  a  stranger — 
and  by  the  same  reason  so  must  I  doe  you. '  " 
Smith  objects  on  the  ground  of  her  royal  lineage, 
which  had  well-nigh  brought  Rolfe  to  grief,  and 
she  responds:  "Were  you  not  afraid  to  come  into 
my  father's  countrie  and  cause  feare  in  him  and 
all  his  people  but  mee,  and  feare  you  here  I  should 
call  you  Father?  I  tell  }'ou  then  I  will;  and  you 
shall  call  me  childe ;  and  soe  will  I  be  forever  and 
ever  your  countrieman.  They  did  tell  me  always 
you  were  dead,  and  I  knew  no  other  till  I  came  to 
Plyn)outh.  Yet  Powhatan  did  command  Ottama- 
tomakkin  to  seek  you  and  know  the  truth,  because 
your  countriemen  will  lie  much."  So  ended  the 
parting;  and  soon  afterward  the  poor  little  Prin- 
cess died  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  "  She  came 
to  Gravesend,  to  her  end  and  grave. " 

The   first   English   wedding   on    American   soil 
was  solemnized  between  John  Laydon,  a  laborer, 

49 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

and  Anne  Buras,  maid  to  IMistress  Forest.  They 
were  "  marry'd  together"  in  i6o8.  Thirteen  years 
later  came  a  ship  bearing  "  ye  maides, "  a  comp^my 
of  ninety  young  women,  "pure  and  uncorrupt, " 
sent  over  to  Virginia,  at  the  expense  of  the  com- 
pany in  London,  to  be  married  to  such  settlers  as 
were  able  and  willing  to  support  them,  and  to  re- 
fund to  the  company  the  cost  of  passage.  A  little 
later,  sixty  more  "  maides"  followed ;  and  though 
the  cost  of  a  wife  rose  from  a  hundred  and  twenty,  to 
a  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco,  there  was 
no  slackening  in  the  demand.  In  Maryland,  as  late 
as  1660,  the  market  was  equally  brisk.  "  The  first 
planters,"  says  the  record,  "were  so  far  from  ex- 
pecting money  with  a  woman,  that  'twas  a  common 
thing  for  them  to  buy  a  deserving  wife,  that  carried 
good  testimonials  of  her  character,  at  the  price  of  a 
hundred  pound,  and  make  themselves  believe  they 
had  a  bargain." 

We  read  of  an  adventurous  young  lady  of  some 
social  consequence,  being  a  niece  of  Daniel 
Defoe,  who,  suffering  from  an  unfortunate  love- 
affair  in  England,  ran  away  from  home,  and 
came  to  Maryland  as  a  "redemptioner. "  Her  ser- 
vices were  engaged  by  a  farmer  named  Job,  in  Cecil 
County,  and  soon  after,  according  to  a  frequent 
custom  of  the  country,  she  married  into  the  family 
of  her  employer.     A  Maryland  record  of  Novem- 

50 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

ber  2,  1638,  runs  thus:  "This  day  came  William 
Lewis,  planter,  and  made  oath  that  he  is  not  re- 
contracted  to  any  other  woman  than  Ursula  Gif- 
ford;  and  that  there  is  no  impediment  why  he 
should  not  be  married  to  the  said  Ursula  Gifford 
— and,  further,  he  acknowledgeth  himself  to  owe 
unto  the  Lord  Proprietary  a  thousand  pounds  of 
tobacco,  in  case  there  be  any  precontract  or  other 
lawful  impediment  whatsoever,  as  aforesaid,  either 
on  the  part  of  William  Lewis  or  Ursula  Gifford." 

This  arrangement  of  making  the  bridegroom  re- 
sponsible for  the  good  faith  of  the  lady  as  well  as 
his  own,  is  quite  refreshing  in  these  days  of  equal 
rights  and  responsibilities.  The  woman's  rights 
question,  however,  was  at  the  front  in  Maryland, 
in  the  seventeenth  century ;  and  the  strong-minded 
woman  who  introduced  it,  was  Mistress  Margaret 
Brent,  cousin  to  Governor  Calvert,  who  had  such 
confidence  in  her  business  sagacity  and  ability,  that 
he  appointed  her  his  executrix,  with  the  brief  in- 
structions, "Take  all:  pay  all."  She  made  ap- 
plication to  the  Maryland  Assembly  to  grant  her  a 
vote  in  the  House  for  herself,  and  another  as  his 
Lordship's  attorney.  The  request  was  peremp- 
torily refused  by  Governor  Greene;  but,  nothing 
daunted,  "  the  sd.  Mrs  Brent  protested  against  all 
proceedings  in  this  present  assembly  unlesse  shee 
may  be  present  and  have  a  vote  as  aforesaid." 

51 


The   Colonial   Cavalier, 

Another  woman  of  force  in  those  days  was  Vir- 
linda  Stone.  In  the  Maryland  archives  still  ex- 
ists a  letter  from  her  to  Lord  Baltimore,  praying 
for  an  investigation  of  a  fight  in  Anne  Arundel 
County,  during  which  her  husband  was  wounded. 
At  the  end  of  the  business-like  document,  she 
adds  a  fiery  and  altogether  feminine  postscript,  in 
which  she  declares  that  "  Hemans,  the  master  of 
the  Golden  Lion,  is  a  very  knave:  and  that  will  be 
made  plainly  for  to  appeare  to  your  Lordship,  for 
he  hath  abused  my  husband  most  grossly."  Such 
women  as  these  were  not  to  be  trifled  with.  No 
wonder  Alsopsays:  "All  complimental  courtships 
drest  up  in  critical  Rarities  are  meer  strangers  to 
them.  Plain  wit  comes  nearest  to  their  genius; 
so  that  he  that  intends  to  court  a  Maryland  girle, 
must  have  something  more  than  the  tautologies  of 
a  long-winded  speech  to  carry  on  his  design,  or 
else  he  may  fall  under  the  contempt  of  her  frown 
and  his  own  windy  discourse." 

The  Virginia  women  were  as  high-spirited  as 
their  Maryland  sisters.  They  had  no  idea  of  being 
commanded  into  matrimony.  When  Governor 
Nicholson  became  infatuated  with  one  of  the  fair 
daughters  of  Master  Lewis  Burwell  and  demanded 
her  hand  with  royally  autocratic  manner,  neither 
she  nor  her  parents  were  disposed  to  comply.  The 
suitor  became  furious,  and  persisted  for  years  in 

52 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

his  determination,  which  seems  to  have  been  as 
much  a  matter  of  pride,  as  of  sentiment.  He  took 
pains  to  wreak  his  wrath  on  every  one  who  opposed 
the  match,  going  so  far  as  to  threaten  the  lives  of 
the  unwilling  young  woman's  father  and  brother. 
To  Commissary  Blair  he  declared  that,  if  she  mar- 
ried any  one  but  himself,  he  would  cut  the  throats 
of  three  men — the  bridegroom,  the  minister,  and 
the  justice  who  issued  the  license.  Strangely 
enough,  the  damsel  was  not  attracted  by  this  wild 
wooing;  and,  as  a  candid  friend  wrote  to  the  furi- 
ous lover,  "  It  is  not  here,  as  in  some  barbarous 
countries,  where  the  tender  lady  is  dragged  into 
the  Sultan's  arms  reeking  with  the  blood  of  her 
relatives."  Though  this  affair  created  such  a  stir 
throughout  the  Colony  of  Virginia  and  lasted  so 
long  a  time,  no  record  has  remained  of  the  young 
heroine's  after  fate,  except  the  fact  that  she  did 
not  become  Lady  Nicholson ;  not  even  her  Chris- 
tian name  has  come  down  to  posterity,  to  whom 
she  remains  a  shadowy  divinity. 

A  noticeable  feature  of  Colonial  life  in  Virginia, 
is  the  belleship  of  widows.  The  girls  seem  to  have 
stood  no  chance  against  their  fascinations.  Wash- 
ington, and  Jefferson,  and  Madison  each  married 
one.  In  the  preceding  century,  Sir  William  Berke- 
ley, who  had  brought  no  lady  with  him  across  the 
water,  was  taken  captive  by  a  young  widow  of  War- 

53 


The   Colonial  Cavalier. 

wick  County,  a  certain  Dame  Frances  Stevens, 
who,  after  thirty-two  years  of  married  life,  being 
again  left  a  widow  by  Berkeley's  death,  wedded 
with  her  late  husband's  secretary,  Philip  Ludwell 
— holding  fast,  however,  to  her  title  of  Lad)' 
Berkeley.  Lord  Culpeper  writes  in  a  letter  of 
1680,  "  My  Lady  Berkeley  is  married  to  ]Mr.  Lud- 
well; and  thinks  no  more  of  our  world."  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  the  secretary  whom  the  lady  took 
for  her  third  husband,  proved  a  more  amiable 
companion  than  the  fiery  old  Governor,  whose 
pride  and  bitter  obstinacy  wrought  such  havoc 
after  Bacon's  rebellion,  that  the  reports  of  his 
cruelties  echoed  to  the  shores  of  England.  Ed- 
mund Cheesman,  a  follower  of  Bacon's,  being 
brought  up  for  trial,  Berkeley  asked  him :  "  Why 
did  you  engage  in  Bacon's  designs?"  Before 
Cheesman  could  answer,  his  young  wife,  falling  on 
her  knees,  exclaimed:  "  My  provocation  made  my 
husband  join  in  the  cause  for  which  Bacon  con- 
tended. But  for  me  he  had  never  done  what  he 
has  done.  Let  me  bear  the  punishment,  but  let 
my  husband  be  pardoned!"  Where  was  the  chiv- 
alry of  that  Cavalier  blood  on  which  Berkeley 
prided  himself?  We  read  that  her  prayer  availed 
her  husband  nothing,  and  procured  only  insult  to 
herself. 

Our   sympathy    with    Bacon,   in    his    rebellion 
54 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

against  Berkeley's  tyranny,  makes  us  doubly  re- 
gretful that  he  should  have  stained  his  career  b)- 
a  deed  of  cowardice  and  cruelty.  It  was  one  of 
those  blunders  worse  than  crimes,  and  gave  him 
and  his  followers  the  contemptuous  appellation  of 
"White  Aprons."  When  Bacon  made  his  sudden 
turn  on  Sir  William  Berkeley,  he  established  his 
headquarters  at  Green  Springy  Berkeley's  own  man- 
sion. There  he  threw  up  breastworks  in  front 
of  his  palisades,  and  then  sent  out  detachments  of 
horsemen,  who  scoured  the  country  and  brought 
back  to  camp  the  wives  of  prominent  Berkeleyites. 
Among  these  dames  were  Madam  Bray,  Madam 
Page,  Madam  Ballard,  and  Madam  Bacon — the  last, 
the  wife  of  the  rebel's  kinsman.  Bacon  then  sent 
one  of  the  dames  to  the  town  under  a  flag  of  truce, 
to  inform  the  husbands  that  he  intended  to  place 
them  in  front  of  his  men  while  he  constructed  his 
earthworks.  "  The  poor  gentlewomen  were  might- 
ily astonished,  and  neather  were  their  husbands 
void  of  amazement  at  this  subtile  invention.  The 
husbands  thought  it  indeed  wonderful  that  their 
innocent  and  harmless  wives  should  thus  be  en- 
tered a  white  garde  to  the  Divell" — the  Divell,  of 
course,  being  General  Bacon,  who,  thus  protected 
by  The  White  Aprons,  finished  his  fortifications  in 
security;  gaining  a  reputation  for  "subtility,"  but 
tarnishing  his  character  for  gallantry. 

55 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

As  society  grew  more  stable,  it  grew  also  more 
complex.  The  buying  of  wives  gave  way  to 
sentimental  courtships,  and  men  also  began  to 
learn  the  advantages  of  a  single  life.  In  Mary- 
land so  many  took  this  view,  that  we  find  the  old 
statutes  imposing  a  tax  on  bachelors  over  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  of  five  shillings,  for  estates  under 
three  hundred  pounds  sterling,  or  twenty  shillings 
when  over ;  a  tax  which  seems  to  have  been  more 
successful  as  a  means  of  raising  money  than  of  pro- 
moting matrimony ;  for  we  find  the  record  of  its 
payment  by  a  surprising  number  of  bachelors,  St. 
Ann's  parish  vestry-books  alone  showing  thirty- 
four  such  derelicts.  Perhaps,  however,  this  celib- 
acy did  not  indicate  so  much  aversion  to  mar- 
riage, as  inability  to  meet  the  growing  demands 
for  luxury.  The  obstinate  bachelors  may  have  felt 
with  regard  to  matrimony  as  Alsop  did  with 
regard  to  liberty,  that  "without  money  it  is  like 
a  man  opprest  with  the  gout — every  step  he  takes 
forward  puts  him  to  pain."  The  Abbe  Robin  at 
a  later  day  says  of  Annapolis :  "  Female  luxury 
here  exceeds  what  is  known  in  the  provinces  of 
France.  A  French  hair-dresser  is  a  man  of  impor- 
tance ;  it  is  said  a  certain  dame  here,  hires  one  of 
that  craft  at  a  thousand  crowns  a  year  salary." 
The  very  rumors  of  such  extravagance  must  have 
frightened  frugal  young  men ! 

56 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

The  Colonial  maiden  came  into  society  and 
married,  at  an  age  which  now  seems  surprisingly 
early.  Chief-Justice  Marshall  met  and  fell  in 
love  with  his  wife  when  she  was  fourteen,  and 
married  her  at  sixteen.  An  unmarried  woman  of 
over  twenty-five,  was  looked  upon  as  a  hopeless 
and  confirmed  old  maid  and  spoken  of,  like  Miss 
Wilkins,  of  Boston,  as  "a  pitiable  spectacle."  It 
may  be  that  this  extreme  youth  of  the  maids  ex- 
plains the  attraction  of  the  widows,  who  had  more 
social  experience.  Burnaby  writes  in  a  very  un- 
handsome manner  of  his  impressions  of  the  Vir- 
ginia ladies  whom  he  met  in  his  American  tour,  and 
generalizes  with  true  British  freedom  on  slight 
acquaintance  with  the  facts.  He  admits  grudg- 
ingly that  the  women  of  Virginia  are  handsome, 
"though  not  to  be  compared  with  our  fair  coun- 
trywomen in  England.  They  have  but  few  advan- 
tages, and  consequently  are  seldom  accomplished. 
This  makes  them  reserved  and  unequal  to  any 
interesting  or  refined  conversation.  They  are 
immoderately  fond  of  dancing,  and,  indeed,  it  is 
almost  the  only  amusement  they  partake  of;  but 
even  in  this,  they  discover  great  want  of  taste  and 
elegance,  and  seldom  appear  with  that  gracefulness 
and  ease  which  these  movements  are  so  calculated 
to  display.  Toward  the  close  of  an  evening,  when 
the  company  are  pretty  well  tired   with   contra- 

57 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

dances,  it  is  usual  to  dance  jigs — a  practice  origin- 
ally borrowed,  I  am  informed,  from  the  negroes. 
The  Virginia  ladies,  excepting  these  amusements, 
and  now  and  then  a  party  of  pleasure  into  the 
woods  to  partake  of  a  barbecue,  cheerfully  spend 
their  time  in  sewing  and  taking  care  of  their 
families." 

Another  traveller  makes  a  better  report,  and 
draws  more  favorable  conclusions. 

"  Young  women  are  affable  wath  young  men  in 
America,"  he  writes,  "and  married  women  are 
reserved,  and  their  husbands  are  not  as  familiar 
with  the  girls  as  they  were,  when  bachelors.  If  a 
young  man  were  to  take  it  into  his  head  that  his 
betrothed  should  not  be  free  and  gay  in  her  social 
intercourse,  he  would  run  the  risk  of  being  dis- 
carded, incur  the  reputation  of  jealousy,  and  would 
find  it  very  difficult  to  get  married.  Yet  if  a  sin- 
gle woman  were  to  play  the  coquette,  she  w^ould 
be  regarded  with  contempt.  As  this  innocent 
freedom  between  the  sexes  diminishes  in  propor- 
tion as  society  loses  its  purity  and  simplicity  of 
manners,  as  is  the  case  in  cities,  I  desire  sincerely 
that  our  good  Virginia  ladies  may  long  retain 
their  liberty  entire." 

The  Colonial  age  was  the  day  of  elaborate  com- 
pliment. Gentlemen  took  time  to  turn  their  sen- 
tences and  polish  them  neatly,  and  ladies  heard 

58 


The  Colonial   Ca\'alier. 

them  to  the  end  without  suggesting  by  a  word  or 
ghmce  that  the  climax  had  been  foreseen  for  tlie 
last  five  minutes,  at  least.  An  essay  on  U'ofnan,  by 
a  certain  Mr.  Thomas,  had  a  great  vogue  in  tlie 
eighteenth  century,  and  antedated  Tupper's  Poems 
as  a  well  of  sentimental  quotation.  The  Spectator 
and  T/ie  Tattler  gave  the  tone  to  society  literature, 
and  enabled  the  provincial  dame  to  reflect  accu- 
rately the  Lady  Betty  Modish  of  London.  The 
beaux,  too,  took  many  a  leaf  from  T/ic  Spectator  in 
the  study  of  a  compliment.  When  I  read  of  the 
Colonial  maiden  poring  over  the  tiny  glaze-paper 
note  accompanying  a  book  entitled  "  The  Art  of 
Loving" — in  which  the  writer  declares  it  to  be 
"most  convenient,  presenting  Xhe  art  of  Loving  to 
one  who  so  fully  possesses  the  art  of  Plcasitig"  — 
I  am  carried  back  to  the  days  of  Sir  Roger  de 
Coverley. 

There  is  a  marked  contrast  in  the  social  chroni- 
cles of  the  eighteenth  century  at  home  and  abroad, 
between  what  the  gentlemen  said /o*  the  ladies  and 
what  they  said  alwut  them.  That  wicked  Colonel 
Byrd,  for  instance,  after  making  himself  agree- 
able to  Governor  Spotswood's  ladies  the  whole 
evening,  writes  in  his  journal  that  their  con- 
versation was  "like  whip  sillabub — very  pretty, 
but  with  nothing  in  it."  Again  he  describes 
himself    patronizingly    as    "prattling    with    the 

59 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

ladies  after  a  nine  o'clock  supper."  Yet,  under- 
neath all  the  superficial  bowing  and  scraping 
of  courtesy  and  compliment,  and  the  jesting 
asides  at  the  expense  of  the  fair  sex,  it  must  be 
set  down  to  the  Cavalier's  credit  that  he  treated 
womankind  with  a  great  tenderness  and  respect. 
Woman's  influence  made  itself  felt  in  private  and 
in  public — in  the  Council,  in  the  Virginia  House 
of  Burgesses,  and  in  the  Assemblies  of  Maryland 
and  of  Carolina. 

The  pride  and  folly  of  Governor  Tryon  of  Caro- 
lina led  him  to  make  a  demand  on  the  Assembly 
for  an  extensive  appropriation  for  the  building  of 
a  palace  at  Newbern  suitable  for  the  residence  of 
a  royal  Governor.  To  obtain  this  appropriation, 
Lady  Tryon  and  her  sister,  the  beautiful  Esther 
Wake,  used  all  their  blandishments.  Lady  Tryon 
gave  brilliant  balls  and  dinners,  and  her  sister's 
bright  eyes  rained  influence  to  such  good  purpose, 
that  the  first  appropriation  and  as  much  more  was 
granted,  and  the  palace  was  pronounced  the  most 
magnificent  structure  in  America.  The  palace  is 
fallen — its  marble  mantels,  its  colonnades,  its 
carved  staircases  are  in  ruins;  but  the  name  of 
beautiful  Esther  Wake  is  preserved  in  Wake 
County. 

The  chronicles  of  the  Carolinas  are  full  of  ro- 
mance.    Here,  at  Cross  Creek,  dwelt   Flora  Mac- 

60 


The  Colonial   Ca\alier. 

Donald,  the  heroic  rescuer  of  the  Pretender  after 
the  disasters  of  Ciilloden.  It  seems  a  strange 
chance  that  brought  her  from  such  exciting  mas- 
querades, from  the  companionship  of  kings  and 
the  role  of  heroine  on  the  stage  of  the  great  world, 
to  the  pioneer's  cottage  in  the  wild  woods  of  the 
Western  wilderness.  The  only  drawback  to  her 
career  in  eighteenth  century  eyes  was  that  she 
married  and  lived  happy  ever  after.  The  romance 
of  that  day  demanded  a  broken  heart,  and  tragedy 
was  always  in  high  favor.  Every  locality  had  its 
story  of  blighted  love  and  life.  The  Dismal 
Swamp,  lying  on  the  border  between  Virginia  and 
Carolina,  was  a  sort  of  Gretna  Green,  where  many 
runawa)^  marriages  were  celebrated.  Tradition 
tells  of  a  lover  whose  sweetheart  died  suddenly; 
and  he,  driven  mad  by  grief,  fancied  that  she  had 
gone  to  the  Dismal  Swamp,  where  he  perished  in 
the  search  for  her. 

When  Tom  Moore  was  in  this  country  he  was 
impressed  by  the  legend,  and  set  it  thus  to  the 
music — let  us  not  dare  to  say  the  jingle — of  his 
verse : 

They  made  her  a  grave  too  cold  and  damp 

For  a  soul  so  warm  and  true, 
And  she's  gone  to  the  Lake  of  the  Dismal  Swamp, 
Where  all  night  long,  by  her  fire-fly  lamp 

She  paddles  her  white  canoe. 
6i 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

And  her  fire- fly  lamp  I  soon  shall  see, 

Her  paddle  I  soon  shall  hear. 
Long  and  loving  our  life  shall  be, 
And  I'll  hide  the  maid  in  a  cypress  tree, 

When  the  footsteps  of  Death  draw  near. 

Real  life  had  its  tragedies,  too.  In  the  deep 
wainscoted  hall  of  the  Brandon  Mansion  hangs  a 
portrait  of  lovely  Evelyn  Byrd.  She  sits  on  a  green 
bank,  with  a  handful  of  roses  and  a  shepherd's 
crook  in  her  lap — her  soft,  dark  eyes  look  out  in 
pensive  sadness  as  though  they  could,  if  they  would, 
tell  the  story  of  a  maiden's  heart  and  a  life  ended 
untimely  by  unhappy  love.  One  story  says  she 
broke  her  heart  for  Parke  Custis,  who  left  her  to 
wear  the  willow,  and  married  afterward  the  Martha 
Dandridge,  who  in  the  whirligig  of  time  became 
Lady  Washington.  Another  rumor  connects  her 
name  with  that  of  the  Earl  of  Peterborough,  who 
loved  her  deeply,  so  the  story  runs;  but  his  creed 
was  not  hers,  and  her  father.  Colonel  Byrd,  would 
not  consent  to  the  marriage.  The  maiden  yielded 
to  her  father's  will,  but  pined  away  and  died;  and 
there,  in  the  Westover  burying-ground,  she  lies  un- 
der a  ponderous  stone,  which  records  this  epitaph  : 

"Alas,  Reader, 
We  can  detain  nothing,  however  valued, 
From  unrelenting  death. 
Beauty,  Fortune,  or  exalted  Honour — 
See  here  a  proof  !" 

62 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

I  cannot  help  feeling  that  all  these  might  have 
been  detained  on  earth  to  a  ripe  age,  had  the 
maiden  been  left  free  to  decide  the  most  important 
question  of  her  life  to  her  liking;  for,  in  a  letter 
written  by  Colonel  Byrd  when  Evelyn  was  a  slip 
of  a  girl,  I  read  concerning  the  maiden,  "  She  has 
grown  a  great  romp  and  enjoys  robust  health." 
Yet  a  few  years  later,  the  robust  romp  has  faded  to 
a  shadow,  and  is  laid  away  in  the  family  grave- 
yard, and  only  her  portrait  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller, 
remains  to  appeal  to  the  sentiment  and  sympathy 
of  posterity. 

The  gentle  Evelyn  Byrd  was  not  the  only  one 
whom  the  traditions  of  the  Colonial  Cavalier  credit 
with  carrying  to  the  grave  a  heart  scarred  with  the 
wounds  of  unhappy  love.  Lord  Fairfax,  who  lived 
to  be  over  sixty  and  kept  open  house  at  Belvoir, 
where  Washington  visited  him  and  kept  him  com- 
pany in  riding  to  hounds  over  hill  and  dale;  Lord 
Fairfax — with  his  gaunt,  tall  frame;  his  gray,  near- 
sighted e3'es,  and  prominent  aquiline  nose,  little 
outward  resemblance  as  he  might  bear  to  the  orig- 
inal of  the  almond-eyed  portrait  at  Brandon — re- 
sembled her  at  least  in  a  wounded  heart  and  a 
broken  career.  In  his  youth,  this  solitary  Vir- 
ginia recluse  had  been  a  brilliant  man-about-town 
in  the  gay  world  of  London.  He  had  held  a  com- 
mission in  "the  Blues";  he  had  known  the  famous 

65 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

men  of  the  day,  he  had  dabbled  in  literature, 
and  contributed  a  paper  now  and  then  to  the 
Spectator.  When  his  career  of  fashion  was  at  its 
height,  he  paid  his  addresses  to  a  young  lady  of 
rank  and  was  accepted.  The  day  for  the  wed- 
ding was  fixed — the  establishment  furnished,  even 
to  equipage  and  servants — when  the  inconstant 
bride-elect,  dazzled  by  a  ducal  coronet,  broke 
her  engagement.  The  blow  wrought  a  complete 
change  in  the  jilted  lover.  From  that  time  he 
shrank  from  the  society  of  all  women,  and  finally 
came  over  to  Virginia  to  hide  his  hurt  in  the 
Western  forests. 

Spite  of  such  traditions  of  melancholy,  the  actual 
career  of  most  of  the  people  of  those  times  forms 
a  curious  contrast  to  the  ideals  of  their  poetry  and 
fiction.  With  scarcely  an  exception,  they  survived 
their  unsuccessful  love  affairs,  and  lived  in  pros- 
perous serenity  with  others  than  the  first  rulers  of 
their  hearts. 

There  is  Jefferson,  for  instance.  Almost  the 
first  letter  in  his  published  correspondence  is  de- 
voted to  a  confession  of  his  tender  passion  for  a 
young  lady  dwelling  in  the  town  of  Williamsburg. 
Yet  her  name  is  not  the  one  that  stands  next  his 
own  on  the  marriage  register.  This  first  love  of 
his  was  a  Miss  'Becca  Burwell.  We  chance  upon 
the  young  collegian's  secret  as  we  open  his  letter 

66 


The  Colonial   Ca\aliei\ 

to  John  Page,  written  on  Christmas  day,  1762.  He 
begins  jocularly  enough,  yet  only  half  in  fun  after 
all :  "  I  am  sure  if  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  Devil 
in  this  world,  he  must  have  been  here  last  night, 
and  have  had  some  hand  in  contriving  what  hap- 
pened to  me.  Do  you  think  the  cursed  rats  (at 
his  instigation,  I  suppose)  did  not  eat  up  my  pocket- 
book,  which  was  in  my  pocket,  within  a  foot  of  my 
head?  And  not  contented  with  plenty  for  the 
present,  they  carried  away  my  jemmy-worked  silk 
garters  and  half  a  dozen  new  minuets  I  had  just 
got."  "  Tell  Miss  Alice  Corbin,"  he  adds,  "  that  I 
verily  believe  the  rats  knew  I  was  to  win  a  pair 
of  garters  from  her,  or  they  never  would  have  been 
so  cruel  as  to  carry  mine  away." 

Christmas  day,  indeed,  found  him  in  sorry  case. 
These  losses  he  could  have  borne,  but  worse  re- 
mained to  tell :  "  You  know  it  rained  last  night, 
or  if  you  do  not  know  it,  I  am  sure  I  do.  When 
I  went  to  bed  I  laid  my  watch  in  the  usual  place ; 
and  going  to  take  her  up  after  I  arose  this  morning, 
I  found  her  in  the  same  place,  'tis  true,  but — 
quantum  midatus  ab  illo — all  afloat  in  water,  let  in 
at  a  leak  in  the  roof  of  the  house,  and  as  silent  and 
still  as  the  rats  that  had  eat  my  pocket-book.  Now, 
5'ou  know,  if  chance  had  had  anything  to  do  in  this 
matter,  there  were  a  thousand  other  spots  where  it 
might  have  chanced  to  leak  as  well  as  this  one, 

67 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

which  was  perpendicularly  over  my  watch.  But, 
I'll  tell  you,  it's  my  opinion  that  the  Devil  came  and 
bored  the  hole  over  it  on  purpose."  It  was  not  the 
injury  to  his  timepiece  which  drew  forth  these  vio- 
lent, half-real,  half-jesting  objurgations;  no,  there 
was  a  sentimental  reason  behind.  The  water  had 
soaked  a  watch-paper  and  a  picture,  so  that  when 
he  attempted  to  remove  them,  he  says :  "  My  cursed 
fingers  gave  them  such  a  rent  as  I  fear  I  shall  never 
get  over.  I  would  have  cried  bitterly,  but  that  I 
thought  it  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  man!"  The 
mystery  of  the  original  of  the  picture  and  the 
m-aker  of  the  watch-paper  is  soon  explained,  for  a 
page  or  tw'o  further  on,  he  trusts  that  Miss  'Becca 
Burwell  will  give  him  another  watch-paper  of  her 
own  cutting,  which  he  promises  to  esteem  much 
more,  though  it  were  a  plain  roimd  one,  than  the 
nicest  in  the  world  cut  by  other  hands.  "  How- 
ever," he  adds,  "  I  am  afraid  she  would  think  this 
presumption,  after  my  suffering  the  other  to  get 
spoiled." 

A  very  real  and  tumultuous  passion  this  of 
young  Tom  Jefferson's!  Every  letter  he  writes 
to  his  friend  teems  with  reference  to  her.  Now 
she  is  R.  B.  ;  again  Belinda;  and  again,  with  that 
deep  secrecy  of  dog  Latin  so  dear  to  the  col- 
legian, she  figures  as  Campana  in  die  (bell  in 
day) ;  or,  still  more  mysteriously,  as  Adnileb,  writ- 

68 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

ten  in  Greek  that  the  vulgar  world  may  not  pry 
into  the  sacred  secret.  Oh,  youth,  youth,  how  like 
is  the  nineteenth  century  to  the  eighteenth,  and 
that  to  its  preceding,  till  we  reach  the  courtship  of 
Adam  and  Eve ! 

In  October,  '63,  he  writes  to  his  old  con- 
fidant: "In  the  most  melancholy  fit  that  ever 
any  poor  soul  was,  I  sit  down  to  write  you.  Last 
night,  as  merry  as  agreeable  company  and  dancing 
with  Belinda  in  the  Apollo  could  make  me,  I  never 
could  have  thought  the  succeeding  sun  could 
have  seen  me  so  wretched  as  I  now  am!  .  .  . 
I  was  prepared  to  say  a  great  deal.  I  had  dressed 
up  in  my  own  mind  such  thoughts  as  occurred  to 
me  in  as  moving  a  language  as  I  knew  how,  and 
expected  to  have  performed  in  a  tolerably  credita- 
ble manner.  But,  good  God !  when  I  had  an  op- 
portunity of  venting  them,  a  few  broken  sentences, 
uttered  in  great  disorder  and  interrupted  with 
pauses  of  uncommon  length,  were  the  too  visible 
marks  of  my  strange  confusion."  The  framer  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  whose  eloquence 
startled  the  world,  found  himself  tongue-tied  and 
stammering  in  a  declaration  of  love  to  a  provincial 
maiden. 

At  twenty-nine  or  thirty  Jefferson  had  re- 
covered enough  to  go  a-courting  again,  to  Mistress 
Martha  Skelton,  a  young  and  childless  widow,  of 

69 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

such  great  beauty  that  many  rivals  contested 
with  him  the  honor  of  winning  her  hand.  The 
story  goes  that  two  of  these  rivals  met  one  even- 
ing in  Mrs.  Skelton's  drawing-room.  While  wait- 
ing for  her  to  enter,  they  heard  her  singing  in 
an  adjoining  room,  to  the  accompaniment  of 
Jefferson's  violin.  The  love-song  was  so  expres- 
sively executed  that  the  admirers  perceived  that 
their  doom  was  sealed,  and,  picking  up  their 
cocked  hats,  they  stole  out  without  waiting  for 
the  lady. 

If  Jefferson  in  his  younger  days  was  soft-hearted 
toward  the  gentler  sex,  his  susceptibility  was  as 
nothing  compared  to  Washington's.  The  senti- 
mental biography  of  that  great  man  would  be  more 
entertaining  than  the  story  of  his  battles,  or  his 
triumphs  of  government.  There  are  evidences  in 
his  own  handwriting  that,  before  he  was  fifteen 
years  old,  he  had  conceived  a  passion  for  a  fair  un- 
known beauty,  so  serious  as  to  disturb  his  otherwise 
well-regulated  mind,  and  make  him  seriously  un- 
happy. His  sentimental  poems  written  at  that 
age,  are  neither  better  nor  worse  than  the  produc- 
tions of  most  boys  of  fifteen.  One  of  them  hints 
that  bashfulness  has  prevented  his  divulging  his 
passion : 

"Ah,  woe  is  me,  that  I  should  love  and  conceal ! 
Long  have  I  wished  and  never  dare  reveal." 
70 


The   Colonial   Cavalier. 

At  the  mature  age  of  sixteen,  he  writes  to  his 
"dear  friend  Robin":  "  my  residence  is  at  present 
at  his  Lordship's,  where  I  might,  was  my  heart  dis- 
engaged, pass  my  time  very  pleasantly,  as  there's 
a  very  agreeable  young  lady  lives  in  the  same 
house;  but  as  that's  only  adding  fuel  to  the  tire,  it 
makes  me  the  more  uneasy ;  for  by  often  and  un- 
avoidably (I)  being  in  company  with  her,  revives 
my   former    passion    for    your  Lowland    Beauty; 
whereas,  was  I  to  live  more  retired  from  young 
w'omen,  I  might   in   some   measure   alleviate  my 
sorrows  by  burying   that  chaste  and  troublesome 
passion  in  the  grave  of  oblivion. "    This  "  chaste  and 
troublesome  passion"  had  subsided  enough,  when 
he  went  as  a  young  officer  to  New  York  in  allthe 
gorgeousness  of  uniform  and  trappings,  to  enable 
him  to  fall  in  love  with  Miss  Mary  Phillipse,  whom 
he  met  at  the  house  of  her  sister,  Mrs.  Beverly 
Robinson.      She   was  gay,  she   was  rich,  she  was 
beautiful,  and  Washington  might  have  made  her 
the  offer  of  his  heart  and  hand  ;  but  suddenly  an  ex- 
press from  Winchester  brought  word  to  New  York 
of  a  French  and  Indian  raid,  and  young  Washing- 
ton hastened  to  rejoin  his  command,  leaving  the 
capture  of  the  lady  to  Captain  Morris.     Three  years 
later  we  find  him   married  to  the  Widow  Custis, 
with  two  children  and  a  fortune  of  fifteen  thousand 
pounds  sterling.     Shortly  after,  he  writes  of  him- 

71 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

self  from  Mount  Vernon,  temperately  enough,  as 
"  fixed  in  this  seat  with  an  agreeable  partner  for 
life,"  and  we  hear  no  more  of  amatory  verses  in 
honor  of  his  Lowland  Beauty,  or  flirtations  with 
fashionable  young  dames  in  Xew  York.  But  when 
the  Marquis  de  Chastellux  announced  his  marriage, 
Washington  wrote  him  in  a  vein  of  humor  rather 
foreign  to  him,  and  bespeaking  a  genial  sympathy 
in  his  expectations  of  happiness.  "  I  saw  by  the 
eulogium  you  often  made  on  the  happiness  of  do- 
mestic life  in  America,"  he  writes,  "that  you  had 
swallowed  the  bait,  and  that  you  would  as  surely  be 
taken  one  day  or  other,  as  that  you  were  a  philoso- 
pher and  a  soldier.  So  your  day  has  at  length 
come!  I  am  glad  of  it  with  all  my  heart  and 
soul.  It  is  quite  good  enough  for  you.  Now 
you  are  well  served  for  coming  to  fight  in  favor 
of  the  American  rebels  all  the  way  across  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  by  catching  that  terrible  con- 
tagion— domestic  felicity — which,  like  the  small- 
pox or  plague,  a  man  can  have  only  once  in  his 
life." 

Of  all  the  joyous  festivals  among  the  Southern 
Colonists,  none  was  so  mirthful  as  a  wedding. 
The  early  records  of  the  wreck  of  the  Sea  Venture 
and  the  tedious  and  dangerous  delay  on  the  Ber- 
mudas mention  that  in  even  that  troublous  time 
they  held  one  "  merry  English  wedding."     In  any 

72 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

new  land  marriay^es  and  births  arc  joyful  events. 
All  that  is  needed  for  prosperity  is  multiplication 
of  settlers,  and  so  it  is  quite  natural  that  the  set- 
ting up  of  a  new  household  should  be  celebrated 
with  rejoicing  and  merry-making. 

In  one  respect  the  colonists  broke  with  the  home 
traditions.  They  insisted  on  holding  their  mar- 
riage ceremonies  at  home  rather  than  in  church, 
and  no  minister  could  move  their  determination. 
As  civilization  advanced,  and  habits  grew  more 
luxurious,  the  marriage  festivities  grew  more 
elaborate  and  formal.  The  primitive  customs 
gave  way  to  pomp  and  display,  till  at  length  a 
wedding  became  an  affair  of  serious  expense. 
"The  house  of  the  parents,"  says  Scharf  in  his 
"Chronicles  of  Baltimore,"  "would  be  filled  with 
company  to  dine;  the  same  company  would  stay 
to  supper.  For  two  days  punch  was  dealt  out  in 
profusion.  The  gentlemen  saw  the  groom  on  the 
first  floor,  and  then  ascended  to  the  second  floor, 
where  they  saw  the  bride ;  there  every  gentleman, 
even  to  one  hundred  a  day,  kissed  her." 

A  Virginia  wedding  in  the  olden  time  was  a 
charming  picture — the  dancers  making  merry  in 
the  wide  halls  or  on  the  lawn ;  the  black  servants 
dressed  in  fine  raiment  for  the  occasion  and 
showing  their  white  teeth  in  that  enjoyment  only 
possible  to  a  negro;    the  jolly  parson    acting   at 

73 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

once  as  priest  and  toast-master;  the  groom  in  ruf- 
fles and  velvet,  and  the  bride  in  brocade  and 
jewels.  Never  again  will  our  country  have  so 
picturesque  a  scene  to  offer.  Let  us  recall  it 
while  we  may  I 

74 


HIS   DRESS 


His  D 


ress- 

In  ttacup  time  cf  hood  and  novP 
A-nd  when  tne  patch  was  tcom" 


F  you  have  any  curiosity  to 
know  what  clothes  these 
first  Colonial  Cavaliers  wore, 
you  may  learn  ver)'  easily  by 
reading  over  the  "particular  of 
Apparrell "  upon  which  they 
agreed  as  necessary  to  the  set- 
tler bound  for  Virginia, 
The  list  includes:  "  i  dozen  Points,  a  Monmouth 
cap,  I  waste-coat,  3  falling  bands,  i  suit  of  can- 
vase,  3  shirts,  I  suit  of  frieze,  i  suit  of  cloth,  4 
paire  shoes,  3  paire  Irish  stockings,  and  i  paire 
garters."  Besides  these  he  would  need  "i  Armor 
compleat,  light,  a  long  peece,  a  sword,  a  belt  and 
a  Bandelier, "  which  may  be  reckoned  among  his 
wearing  apparel,  for  it  would  be  long  before  the 
settler  could  be  safe  without  them  when  he  ven- 
tured outside  the  palisade. 

Englishmen  in  those  days  were  fond  of  elaborate 
dress.  It  was  the  period  of  conical  hats,  and  ro- 
setted  shoes,  of  doublets  and  sashes  and  padded 
trunk-hose,  which   his   Majesty,  James  the    First, 

77 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

much  affected  because  they  filled  out  his  ill-shaped 
legs.  Suits  of  clothes  were  a  frequent  form  of  gift 
and  bequest.  Captain  John  Smith's  will  declares, 
"  I  give  unto  Thomas  Packer,  my  best  suite  of 
aparrell,  of  a  tawmey  colour,  viz.,  hose,  doublet, 
jerkin  and  cloake." 

The  peruke  began  its  all-conquering  career  in 
England,  under  the  Stuarts.  Elizabeth,  it  is  true, 
had  owned  eighty  suits  of  hair,  and  Mary  of  Scot- 
land had  varied  her  hair  to  match  her  dresses. 
But  a  defect  of  the  French  Dauphin  introduced  the 
use  of  the  wig  for  men  as  well  as  women,  and 
false  hair  became  the  rage  throughout  the  world 
of  fashion.  A  London  peruke-maker  advertised : 
"  Full-bottom  wigs,  full  bobs,  minister's  bobs,  nat- 
urals, half-naturals,  Grecian  flyes,  Curleyroys, 
airey  levants,  qu  perukes  and  baggwiggs."  The 
customer  must  have  been  hard  to  please,  who  could 
find  nothing  to  suit  his  style  in  such  a  stock. 

The  settlers  in  Colonial  America  did  not  allow 
themselves  such  luxuries  of  the  toilet  as  a  variety 
of  wigs,  though  a  well-planned  peruke  or  "  a  bob" 
might  have  been  a  good  device  to  trick  the  toma- 
hawk of  the  savage  into  a  bloodless  scalping.  With 
the  poorer  people,  a  single  wig  for  Sunday  wear 
sufficed,  and  was  replaced  on  week  days  by  a  cap, 
generally  of  linen. 

The  Colonial  dames,  being  too  far  from  Court  to 
78 


The  Colonial   Ca\alier. 

copy  the  low-necked  dresses,  the  stomachers  and 
farthingales  of  the  inner  circle  of  fashion,  wore 
instead,  huge  ruffs,  full,  short  petticoats,  and  long, 
flowing  sleeves,  over  tight  undersleeves.  Even  in 
the  wilderness,  however,  they  retained  a  feminine 
fondness  for  gay  attire. 

John  Pory,  a  clever  scapegrace  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  gaming-tables  and  sponging-houses 
in  London,  but  figuring  in  Virginia  as  secretary 
to  Governor  Yeardley,  wrote  home  to  Sir  Dudley 
Carleton,  "  That  your  Lordship  may  know  that  we 
are  not  the  veriest  beggars  in  the  world,  our  cow- 
keeper  here  of  James  Cittie,  on  Sundays  goes  ac- 
coutred all  in  fresh  flaming  silk,  and  a  wife  of 
one  that  in  England  professed  the  black  art,  not 
of  a  scholar  but  of  a  collier  of  Croydon,  wears  her 
rough  beaver  hat  with  a  fair  pearl  hat-band  and  a 
silken  suit,  thereto  correspondent." 

Lively  John  was  probably  lying  a  little  in  the 
cause  of  immigration,  but  it  is  certain  that  the 
desire  for  fine  clothes  early  called  for  a  check,  and 
at  an  early  session  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur- 
gesses, a  sumptuary  law  was  passed  "against 
excess  in  apparell,"  directing  "that  every  man 
be  ceffed  in  the  church  for  all  publique  con- 
tributions— if  he  be  unmarried,  according  to  his 
own  apparrell ;  if  he  be  married,  according  to  his 
own  and  his  wives,  or  either  of  their  apparell." 

79 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

Here,  surely,  is  a  suggestion  from  the  past,  for 
the  fashionable  church  of  the  present. 

A  later  law  in  the  provinces  enacts  that  "no 
silke  stufiEe  in  garments  or  in  peeces,  except  for 
hoods  or  scarfes,  nor  silver  or  gold  lace,  nor  bone- 
lace  of  silke  or  thread,  nor  ribbands  wrought  with 
silver  or  gold  in  them,  shall  be  brought  into  this 
country  to  sell,  after  the  first  of  February."  A 
Maryland  statute  proposes  that  two  sorts  of 
"cloaths"  only  be  worn,  one  for  summer,  the 
other  for  winter.  But  this  was  going  too  far,  and 
the  law  was  never  enforced. 

It  was  permitted  to  none  but  Members  of  the 
Council  and  Heads  of  Hundreds  in  Virginia  to 
wear  the  coveted  gold  on  their  clothes,  or  to  wear 
any  silk  not  made  by  themselves.  This  last  pro- 
hibition was  intended  not  so  much  to  discourage 
pomp  and  pride,  as  to  stimulate  the  infant  indus- 
try of  silk  production,  which  from  the  beginning 
had  been  a  pet  scheme  of  the  colonists.  They  had 
imported  silk-worms  and  planted  mulberry  trees; 
and  as  an  inducement  to  go  into  the  business,  the 
Burgesses  offered  a  premium  of  five  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco  to  any  one  making  a  hundred 
pounds  of  wound  silk  in  any  one  year. 

His  Gracious  Majesty,  Charles  the  Second,  sent 
to  his  loyal  subjects  in  Virginia,  a  letter,  still  to 
be  seen  in  the  college  library  at  Williamsburg.     It 

80 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

is  written  by  his  Majesty's  private  secretary  and 
signed  with  the  sacred  "Charles  R."  It  is  ad- 
dressed to  Governor  Berkeley,  and  runs; 

"  Trusty  &  Wellbeloved,  We  Greet  You  Well. 
Wee  have  received  w^''  much  content  ye  dutifull 
respects  of  Our  Colony  in  y^  prefent  lately  made 
us  by  you  &  y®  councell  there,  of  y^  firft  product  of 
y«  new  Manufacture  of  Silke,  which  as  a  mark  of 
Our  Princely  acceptation  of  yo''  duteys  &  for  y' 
particular  encouragement,  etc. — Wee  have  com- 
manded to  be  wrought  up  for  y*'  ufe  of  Our  owne 
perfon. " 

From  this  letter  has  sprung  the  legend,  dear  to 
loyalist  hearts,  that  the  robe  worn  by  Charles  at 
his  coronation  was  woven  of  Virginia  silk. 

So  much  material  was  needed  "  for  y'^  use  of  our 
owne  person,"  that  the  offering  of  silk  was  no 
doubt  very  welcome.  The  King's  favorite,  Buck- 
ingham, had  twenty-seven  suits,  one  of  them  of 
white  uncut  velvet,  set  all  over  with  diamonds 
and  worn  with  diamond  hat-bands,  cockades  and 
ear-rings,  and  yoked  with  ropes  and  knots  of 
pearls. 

It  was  an  era  of  wild  extravagance.  Not  satis- 
fied with  the  elegance  of  the  time  of  Charles  First, 
his  son's  courtiers  added  plumes  to  the  wide- 
brimmed  hats,  enlarged  the  bows  on  the  shoes, 
donned  great  wigs,  loaded  their  vests  with   em- 


The   Colonial  Cavalier. 

broidery,  and  over  their  coats  hung  short  cloaks, 
worth  a  fortune. 

The  women  dressed  as  befitted  the  court  of  a 
dissolute  king.  Their  artificial  curls  were  trained 
in  "  heart-breakers"  and  "  love-locks. "  The  white- 
ness of  their  skin  was  enhanced  by  powder  and  set 
off  by  patches.  Their  shoulders  rose  above  bodices 
of  costly  brocade  hung  with  jewels  which  had 
sometimes  ruined  both  buyer  and  wearer. 

The  Puritans,  by  their  opposition  to  the  Court, 
escaped  the  evil  influences  of  these  extravagances. 
But  the  Colonial  Cavaliers,  who  bowed  before  the 
King  lower  than  the  courtiers  at  home,  of  course 
imitated  his  dress,  so  far  as  their  fortunes  allowed. 
Every  frigate  that  came  into  port  at  Jamestown  or 
St.  Maries  brought  the  latest  London  fashions.  A 
little  before  Colonel  Fitzhugh  in  Virginia  was  or- 
dering his  Riding  Camblet  cloak  from  London, 
Mr.  Samuel  Pepys  was  writing  in  his  journal, 
"  This  morning  came  home  my  fine  camlete  cloak 
with  gold  buttons."  While  this  gentleman  was 
attiring  himself  in  his  new  shoulder-belt  and 
tunique  laced  with  silk,  "  and  so  very  handsome 
to  church,"  Sir  William  Berkeley  and  Governor 
Calvert  were  opening  their  eyes  of  a  ^Sunday  morn- 
ing three  thousand  miles  away,  and  making  ready 
to  get  into  their  resetted  shoes,  and  to  lace  their 
breeches  and  hose  together  with  points  as  fanciful 

82 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

as  his,  and,  like  him,  perhaps,  having  their  heads 
"combed  by  y*-"  maide  ior  powder  and  other  troubles." 
No  doubt  Lady  Berkeley,  in  her  fine  lace  bands, 
her  coverchef  and  deep  veil,  was  as  fine  as  Madam 
Pepys  in  her  paragon  pettycoat  and  ""just  a  corps." 

With  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  hoop  appeared,  and  carried  all  before  it,  in 
more  senses  than  one.  "The  ladies'  petticoats," 
I  read  in  the  notes  of  a  contemporary  of  the  fash- 
ion, "  are  now  blown  up  into  a  most  enormous 
concave."  Over  this  concave  the  ladies  wore,  on 
ceremonious  occasions,  such  as  a  ball  at  Governor 
Spotswood's  or  an  assembly  at  Annapolis,  trailing 
gowns  of  heavy  brocade,  many  yards  in  length. 
Dragging  these  skirts  behind,  and  bearing  aloft 
on  their  heads  a  towering  structure  of  feathers, 
ribbons  and  lace,  it  was  no  wonder  these  dames 
preferred  slow  and  stately  measures.  At  their 
side,  or  as  near  as  the  spreading  hoop  permitted, 
moved  their  favored  cavaliers,  their  coat-skirts 
stiff  with  buckram,  their  swords  dangling  between 
their  knees,  their  breeches  of  red  plush  or  black 
satin,  so  tight  that  they  fitted  without  a  wrinkle. 

Men  of  that  day  took  their  dress  very  seriously. 
Washington,  who  had  doubtless  gained  many  ideas 
of  fashion  from  the  modish  young  officers  of  Brad- 
dock's  army,  ordered  his  costumes  with  as  much 
particularity  as  he  afterward  conducted  his  cam- 

83 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

paigns.  Shortly  before  he  started  with  his  little 
cavalcade  of  negro  servants  on  his  five-hundred- 
mile  ride  to  Massachusetts,  in  1756,  he  sent  over 
to  a  correspondent  in  London  an  order  for  an  ex- 
tensive wardrobe.  He  wanted  "  2  complete  livery 
suits  for  servants,  with  a  spare  cloak  and  all  other 
necessary  trimmings  for  two  suits  more."  He 
omits  no  detail.  "  I  would  have  you,"  he  writes, 
"  choose  the  livery  by  our  arms ;  only  as  the  field  is 
white,  I  think  the  clothes  had  better  not  be  quite 
so,  but  nearly  like  the  inclosed.  The  trimmings 
and  facings  of  scarlet,  and  a  scarlet  waistcoat.  If 
livery  lace  is  not  quite  disused,  I  should  be  glad 
to  have  the  cloaks  laced.  I  like  that  fashion  best, 
and  two  silver-laced  hats  for  the  above  servants." 

In  addition  to  this,  he  wishes  "  i  set  of  horse- 
furniture  with  livery  lace,  with  the  Washington 
crest  on  the  housings,  etc.  The  cloak  to  be  of  the 
same  piece  and  color  of  the  clothes,  3  gold  and 
scarlet  sword-knots,  3  silver  and  blue  ditto,  i  fash- 
ionable gold-laced  hat." 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  gallant  young  officer 
made  a  sensation  among  the  dames  and  damsels 
of  Philadelphia  and  New  York  as  he  journeyed 
northward,  nor  that  Mistress  Mary  Phillipse  nearly 
lost  her  heart  to  the  wearer  of  the  gold  and  scarlet 
sword-knots  and  the  fashionable  gold-laced  hat. 

All  society  went  in  gorgeous  array  in  those  gay 
84 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

days,  before  color  had  been  banished  to  suit  the 
grim  taste  of  the  Puritan,  and  to  meet  the  econoni 
ical  maxims  of  Poor  RicJiard.  Judges,  on  the  bench, 
wore  robes  of  scarlet,  faced  with  black  velvet,  ex- 
changed in  summer  for  thinner  ones  of  silk.  Eti- 
quette demanded  equally  formal  costume  for  ad- 
vocates at  the  bar.  Patrick  Henry,  who  began  by 
indifference  to  dress,  even  rushing  into  court  fresh 
from  the  chase,  with  mud  and  mire  clinging  to  his 
leather  breeches,  at  length  yielded  to  social  pres- 
sure, and  donned  a  full  suit  of  black  velvet  in 
which  to  address  the  court;  and,  on  one  occasion 
at  least,  a  peach-colored  coat  effectively  set  off  by 
a  bag- wig,  powdered,  as  pompous  IMr.  Wirt  ob- 
serves, "in  the  highest  style  of  forensic  fashion." 

A  satirical  description  sets  forth  the  dress  of  a 
dandy  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  as 
consisting  of  "a  coat  of  light  green,  with  sleeves 
too  small  for  the  arms,  and  buttons  too  big  for  the 
sleeves;  a  pair  of  Manchester  fine  stuff  breeches, 
without  money  in  the  pockets;  clouded  silk  stock- 
ings, but  no  legs;  a  club  of  hair  behind,  larger 
than  the  head  that  carries  it ;  a  hat  of  the  size  of 
a  sixpence,  on  a  block  not  worth  a  farthing." 

In  October,  1763,  the  free-school  at  Annapolis 
was  broken  into  by  robbers,  and  the  wardrobe  of 
the  master  stolen.  When  I  remember  the  scanty 
salaries  paid  to  these  schoolmasters,  I  look  with 

85 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

surprise  on  the  inventory,  which  the  victim  of  the 
robbery  publishes.  Here  we  have  a  superfine 
blue  broadcloth  frock  coat,  a  new  superfine  scarlet 
waistcoat  bound  with  gold  lace,  a  pair  of  green 
worsted  breeches  lined  with  dimity,  besides  a 
ruffled  shirt,  pumps,  and  doe-skin  breeches.  A 
very  pretty  wardrobe,  I  should  say,  for  the  teacher 
of  a  Colonial  village-school! 

It  was  a  picturesque  world  in  those  days.  The 
gentry  rode  gayly  habited  in  bright-colored  velvets 
and  ruffles;  the  clergy  swept  along  in  dignified 
black;  the  judges  wore  their  scarlet  robes,  and  the 
mechanics  and  laborers  were  quite  content  to  don 
a  leather  apron  over  their  buckskin  breeches  and 
red-fiannel  jacket.  The  slaves  in  Carolina  were 
forbidden  to  wear  anything,  except  when  in  livery, 
finer  than  negro-cloth,  duffils,  kerseys,  osnaburgs, 
blue  linen,  check-linen,  coarse  garlix  or  calicoes, 
checked  cotton,  or  Scotch  plaid.  This  prohibition 
was  quite  unnecessary,  as  the  slave  thought  him- 
self very  lucky  if  he  were  clad  in  a  new  and  whole 
garment  of  any  sort. 

Even  paupers  had  their  distinctive  badges.  A 
Virginia  statute  commands  that  every  person  who 
shall  receive  relief  from  the  parish,  and  be  sent  to 
the  poorhouse,  shall,  upon  the  shoulder  of  the 
right  sleeve  of  his,  or  her,  uppermost  garment,  in 
an  open  and  visible  manner,  wear  a  badge   with 

86 


The  Colonial    Cavalier. 

the  name  of  the  parish  to  which  he,  or  she,  belonj^s, 
cut  either  in  blue,  red,  or  green  cloth,  at  the  will 
of  the  vestry  or  churchwardens.  If  any  unfor- 
tunate were  afflicted  with  pride  as  well  as  pov- 
erty and  refused  to  wear  this  badge  of  pauper- 
ism, he  was  subject,  by  the  law,  to  a  whipping,  not 
to  exceed  five  lashes. 

The  students  of  William  and  Alary  College  were 
required  to  wear  academical  dress  as  soon  as  they 
had  passed  "  y®  grammar  school,"  and  thus  another 
costume  was  added  to  the  moving  tableaux  on  the 
street  of  Williamsburg. 

In  the  college-books,  I  find  it  resolved  by  the 
Faculty  in  1765  that  Mrs.  Foster  be  appointed 
stocking-mender  in  the  college,  and  that  she  be 
paid  annually  the  sum  of  ^12,  provided  she  fur- 
nishes herself  with  lodging,  diet,  fire,  and  candles. 
Considering  the  length  of  stockings  in  those  days, 
and  assuming  that  the  nature  of  boys  has  not 
materially  changed,  I  cannot  help  thinking  the 
salary  somewhat  meagre  for  the  duties  involved. 
Stockings,  however,  were  less  troublesome  than 
shirts.  A  Mrs.  Campbell  sends  her  nephews  back  to 
school  accompanied  by  a  note  explaining  that  she 
returns  all  their  clothes  except  eleven  shirts,  not  yet 
washed. 

If  the  clothes  of  boys  were  troublesome,  those  of 
girls  were  more  so.      Madam  Mason,  as  guardian 

S7 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

of  her  children,  sends  in  an  account,  wherein  the 
support  of  each  child  is  reckoned  at  a  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco  yearly.  Her  son,  Thomson,  is 
charged  with  linen  and  ruffled  shirts,  and  her 
daughter,  Mary,  with  wooden-heeled  shoes,  petti- 
coats, one  hoop-petticoat,  and  linen.  We  may  be 
sure  that  the  needling  on  those  petticoats  and 
ruffled  skirts  would  be  a  reproach,  in  its  dainty 
fineness,  to  the  machine-made  garments  of  our  age. 

Little  Dolly  Payne,  who  afterward  became  Mrs. 
Madison  and  mistress  of  the  White  House,  trotted 
off  to  school  in  her  childhood  (so  her  biographer 
tells  us),  equipped  with  a  white  linen  mask  to 
keep  every  ray  of  sunshine  from  the  complexion, 
a  sun-bonnet  sewed  on  her  head  every  morning  by 
her  careful  mother,  and  long  gloves  covering  the 
hands  and  arms. 

Gentlewomen,  big  and  little,  in  y®  olden  time, 
seem  to  have  had  an  inordinate  fear  of  the  simshine, 
as  is  evidenced  by  their  long  gloves,  their  veils, 
and  those  riding-masks  of  cloth  or  velvet,  which 
must  have  been  most  imcomfortable  to  keep  in 
place,  even  with  the  aid  of  the  little  silver  mouth- 
pieces held  between  the  teeth.  But  vanity  enables 
people  to  endure  many  ills.  In  a  correspondence 
between  Miss  Anna  Bland  in  Virginia,  and  her 
brother  Theodorick  in  London,  the  young  lady 
writes :  "  iMy  Papa  has  sent  for  me  a  dress  and  a 

88 


The  Colonial    Cavalier. 

pair  of  stays.  I  should  be  glad  if  you  will  be 
peticular  (sic)  in  the  choice  of  them.  Let  the  stays 
be  very  stiff  bone,  and  much  gored  at  the  hips, 
and  the  dress  any  other  color  except  yellow." 

No  doubt,  the  consciousness  of  looking  well,  sus- 
tained the  young  martyr,  as  she  gasped  through 
the  minuet,  in  her  new  dress  and  her  stiff  stays, 
drawn  tight  at  home  by  the  aid  of  the  bed-post. 
The  first  directions  to  the  attendant  in  a  case  of 
swooning,  so  common  in  our  great-grandmothers' 
lifetime,  was  to  cut  the  stays,  that  the  imprisoned 
lungs  might  get  room  to  breathe  once  more. 

Human  nature  is  oddly  inconsistent.  These 
people,  who  found  it  incomprehensible  that  sava- 
ges should  tattoo  their  bodies,  hang  beads  round 
their  necks,  and  wear  ornaments  of  snakes  and  rats 
hung  by  the  tails  through  their  ears  and  noses, 
decked  themselves  with  jewelry,  wore  wigs  and 
patches,  and  pierced  their  ears  for  barbaric  rings  of 
gold  or  precious  stones.  I  protest  I  don't  know 
which  would  have  looked  queerer  to  the  other,  the 
Indian  squaw  or  the  Colonial  belle  of  the  eighteenth 
century;  but,  from  the  artistic  standpoint,  the  ad- 
vantage was  all  with  the  child  of  nature. 

In  a  grave  business  letter,  written  to  Washing- 
ton on  matters  of  state  by  George  Mason,  the 
correspondent  adds:  "P.S.  I  shall  take  it  as  a 
particular  favor  if  you'll  be  kind  enough  to  get  me 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

two  pairs  of  gold  snaps  made  at  Williamsburg,  for 
my  little  girls.  The}'  are  small  rings  with  a  joint 
in  them,  to  wear  in  the  ears,  instead  of  ear-rings — 
also  a  pair  of  toupee  tongs." 

It  is  a  pleasant  glimpse  we  thus  gain  of  one 
great  statesman  writing  to  another,  and  turning 
awav  from  public  enterprises  to  remember  the 
private  longings  of  the  two  little  maidens  at  home, 
whose  hearts  are  to  be  gladdened,  though  the  flesh 
suffers,  by  these  bits  of  finery. 

It  was  not  little  girls  alone  who  were  willing 
to  endure  discomfort  in  the  cause  of  personal  ap- 
pearance. Washington's  false  teeth  still  remain,  a 
monument  of  his  fortitude.  They  are  a  set  of 
"  uppers  and  unders"  carved  in  ivory,  inserted  in  a 
ponderous  plate,  with  clamps  in  the  roof  that  must 
have  caused  torture  to  the  inexperienced  mouth. 
The  upper  set  is  connected  with  the  lower  by  a 
spiral  spring,  and  the  two  are  arranged  to  be  held 
in  place  by  the  tongue.  No  one  but  the  hero  of 
Trenton  and  Valley  Forge,  could  have  borne  such 
an  affliction  and  preserved  his  equanimity. 

Tooth-brushes  are  a  modern  luxury.  In  the  old 
times,  the  most  genteel  were  content  to  rub  the 
teeth  with  a  rag  covered  with  chalk  or  snuff,  and 
there  was  more  than  a  suspicion  of  effeminacy  in 
a  man's  cleaning  his  teeth  at  all.  It  is  not  strange 
that  there  was  such  a  demand  for  the  implanted 

90 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

teeth  which  Dr.  Le  Mayeur  introduced  toward  the 
end  of  the  century. 

I  think  it  may  be  fairly  claimed  that  the  nine- 
teenth century  has  marked  a  great  advance  in  per- 
sonal cleanliness.  To  this,  as  much  as  anything, 
except  perhaps  the  use  of  rubber  clothing,  we  owe 
its  increase  of  longevity.  It  is  impossible  to  over- 
estimate the  importance  to  modern  hygiene  of 
water-proof  substances,  keeping  the  feet  and  body 
dry.  Pattens  and  clogs  were  of  service  in  their 
day  and  generation,  but  they  were  a  clumsy  con- 
trivance as  compared  with  the  light  overshoes  of 
India-rubber.  It  was  not  till  1772  that  the  first 
efforts  were  made  in  Baltimore  to  introduce  the 
use  of  umbrellas.  "These,  like  tooth-brushes," 
writes  Scharf,  "  were  at  first  ridiculed  as  effemin- 
ate, and  were  only  introduced  by  the  vigorous  efforts 
of  the  doctors,  who  recommended  them  chiefly 
as  shields  from  the  sun  and  a  defence  against  ver- 
tigo and  prostration  from  heat.  The  first  um- 
brellas came  from  India.  They  were  made  of 
coarse  oiled  linen,  stretched  over  sticks  of  rattan, 
and  were  heavy  and  clumsy,  but  they  marked  a 
wonderful  step  in  the  direction  of  hygienic  dress. 
Before  their  introduction,  ministers  and  doctors, 
who,  more  than  any  one  else  in  the  community, 
were  called  to  face  the  winter  rains,  wore  a  cape  of 
oiled  linen,  called  a  roquelairc." 

91 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

If  the  dress  of  the  period  before  the  Revolution 
was  not  hygienic,  it  was  handsome,  and  eminently 
picturesque,  as  the  old  portraits  of  the  last  century 
show.  The  universally  becoming  ruffles  of  lace 
were  in  vogue,  and  women  still  young  wore  dainty 
caps,  whose  delicate  lace,  falling  over  the  hair,  lent 
softness  and  youth  to  the  features.  Old  ladies  were 
not  unknown  as  now,  but,  at  an  age  when  the  nine- 
teenth century  woman  of  fashion  is  still  frisking 
about  in  the  costume  of  a  girl  of  twenty,  the  Colo- 
nial dame  adopted  the  dress  and  manners  which 
she  conceived  suited  to  her  age  and  dignity.  Here, 
for  instance,  is  the  evidence  of  a  portrait,  marked 
on  the  stretcher,  "Amy  Newton,  aged  45,  1770, 
John  Durand, //«a7V. "  The  lady  wears  an  ermine- 
trimmed  cloak  draped  about  her  shoulders,  over  a 
bodice,  lace-trimmed  and  cut  square  in  the  neck. 
The  lace-bordered  cap  falls  as  usual  over  the  ma- 
tron's hair.  There  is,  tome,  something  rather  fine 
and  dignified  in  the  assumption  of  a  matronly  dress 
as  a  matter  of  pride  and  choice.  In  one  respect 
the  Colonial  dames,  old  and  young,  were  gayly  at- 
tired. Their  feet  were  clad  in  rainbow  hues  of 
brilliant  reds  and  greens  and  their  dresses  were 
generally  cut  to  show  to  advantage  the  high-heeled 
slipper  and  clocked  stocking  of  bright  color. 

Washington's  order-book  forms  an  excellent 
guide  to  the  prevailing  modes  of  the  day.     The 

92 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

orders  call  for  rich  coats  and  waistcoats  and  cocked 
hats  for  himself;  and  for  Mrs.  Washington,  a  sal- 
mon tabby  velvet,  fine  flowered  lawn  aprons,  white 
callimanco  shoes,  perfumed  powder,  puckered  pet- 
ticoats, and  black  velvet  riding  masks.  Master 
Custis  is  fitted  out  with  two  hair  bags  and  a  whole 
piece  of  ribbon,  while  the  servants  are  provided 
with  fifty  ells  of  osnabergs  (a  coarse  cloth  made  of 
flax  and  tow  manufactured  at  Osnaberg,  in  Ger- 
many, and  much  in  vogue  for  servants'  wear). 

The  goods  of  the  time,  for  high  and  low,  were 
made  to  outlast  more  than  one  generation.  Charles 
Carroll,  of  Carrollton,  was  betrothed  in  his  youth 
to  a  beautiful  young  lady.  The  wedding-dress 
was  ordered  from  London,  but  before  its  arrival 
the  bride  elect  had  died,  and  the  dress  was  laid 
aside.  A  century  later,  it  appeared  at  a  fancy 
dress  ball,  its  fabric  untarnished,  and  untouched 
by  time.  It  was  worth  while  to  pay  high  prices 
for  such  stuffs.  In  many  a  household  to-day  is 
cherished  some  bit  of  the  brocades,  sarcenets, 
shalloons,  and  tammies  worn  by  our  great-grand- 
mothers and  their  mothers. 

In  the  Maryland  Gazette,  somewhere  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  last  century,  Catherine  Rathel,  milliner, 
from  London,  advertises  a  tempting  assortment  of 
white  satin,  India  and  other  chintzes,  calico, 
gingham,  cloaks,  cardinal's  hats,  flowered  gauze 

93 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

aprons,  bonnets,  caps,  6grettes,  fillets,  breast- 
flowers,  fashionable  ribbands,  buttons  and  loops, 
silk  hose,  superfine  white  India  stockings,  box  and 
ivory  combs. 

The  firm  of  Rivington  &  Brown  present  an 
equally  attractive  display  for  gentlemen :  "  An  im- 
portation of  hats,  gold  and  silver-laced,  and  cocked 
by  his  Majesty's  Hatter.  London-made  pumps  and 
boot-garters,  silk  or  buff  sword-belts  and  gorgets, 
new^est  style  paste  shoe-buckles,  gold  seals,  snuff- 
boxes of  tortoise-shell,  leather,  or  papier-mache." 

Whatever  luxuries  or  elegances  of  the  toilet  a 
man  of  fashion  might  possess,  his  snuff-box  was 
his  chief  pride.  This  was  the  weapon  with  which 
he  fought  the  bloodless  battles  of  the  drawing- 
room  and,  armed  with  it,  he  felt  himself  a  Cavalier 
indeed.  The  nice  study  of  the  times  and  seasons 
when  it  should  be  tapped,  when  played  with,  when 
offered  or  accepted,  and  when  haughtily  thrust 
into  the  pocket,  marked  the  gentleman  of  the  old 
school.  But  one  use  of  the  snuff-box,  I  am  certain, 
was  never  devised  by  either  Steele  or  Lilie,  but 
was  left  for  the  brain  or  nerves  of  a  Colonial  dame 
to  invent.  A  widow,  left  alone  and  unprotected, 
occupied  that  ground-floor  room  generally  desig- 
nated in  the  Colonial  house  as  the  parlor-chamber. 
Fearing  firearms  more  than  robbers,  she  armed 
herself  with  a  large  snuff-box,  which,  in  case  of  any 

94 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

suspicious  noise  in  the  night,  she  was  wont  to  click 
loudly,  in  imitation  of  the  cocking  of  a  gun.  The 
effect  on  the  hypothetical  robbers  was  instantane- 
ous, and  they  never  disturbed  her  twice  in  the  same 
night. 

Colonial  dress,  as  we  advance  toward  the  time 
of  the  Revolution,  grows  simpler.  Wigs  fall  by 
their  own  weight,  and  men  begin  to  wear  their 
own  hair,  drawn  back  and  fastened  in  dignified 
fashion  with  a  bow  of  broad  ribbon,  generally 
black.  Except  for  ruffled  shirts  and  deep  cuffs, 
the  costume  of  society  approaches  the  sobriety  of 
to-day,  and  the  lack  of  money  and  threat  of  war 
subdue  the  dress  even  of  the  women.  The  mili- 
tary alone  still  keep  up  the  pomp  and  circum- 
stance of  costume  worn  by  all  men  in  the  Stuart 
era.  In  1774,  the  Fairfax  Independent  Compan}' 
of  Volunteers  meet  in  Virginia,  and  resolve  to 
gather  at  stated  seasons  for  practice  of  military 
exercise  and  discipline.  It  is  further  resolved 
that  their  dress  shall  be  a  uniform  of  blue  turned 
up  with  buff,  with  plain  yellow  metal  buttons,  buff 
waistcoat,  and  breeches,  and  white  stockings;  and 
furnished  with  good  flint-lock  and  bayonet,  sling 
cartouch  box  and  tomahawk. 

Washington's  orders  from  Fort  Cumberland, 
dated  the  seventeenth  of  September,  1775,  pre- 
scribe   the   uniform  to  be  worn   by  the   Virginia 

95 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

Regiment  in  the  opening  struggle :  "  Every  officer 
of  the  Virginia  Regiment  to  provide  himself,  as 
soon  as  he  can  conveniently,  with  suit  of  Regiment- 
als of  good  blue  Cloath ;  the  Coat  to  be  faced  and 
cuffed  with  scarlet,  and  trimmed  with  Silver;  a 
scarlet  waistcoat,  with  silver  Lace;  blue  Breeches, 
and  a  silver-laced  hat,  if  to  be  had,  for  Camp  or 
Garrison  duty.  Besides  this,  each  officer  to  pro- 
vide himself  with  a  common  soldier's  Dress  for 
Detachments  and  Duty  in  the  Woods." 

In  looking  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  when  that  great  wrench  was  made 
which  separated  America  from  the  parent  country, 
we  have  a  feeling  that  men's  minds  were  wholly 
occupied  with  the  tremendous  issues  at  stake ;  yet, 
as  we  study  the  old  records,  we  find  the  same  buy- 
ing and  selling,  the  planting  and  reaping,  the 
same  pondering  and  planning  of  dress  and  the 
trifles  of  daily  life  going  on  much  in  the  old  fashion. 
In  Jefferson's  private  note-book,  under  date  of  July 
4th,  1776,  the  day  of  the  adoption  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  I  find,  entered  in  his  own 
hand,  the  item:  "For  seven  pairs  of  women's 
gloves,  twenty  shillings." 

Even  so  do  great  things  and  small  jostle  one  an- 
other in  this  strange  world  of  ours,  and  a  woman's 
glove  lies  close  to  the  document  which  changed 
the  fate  of  nations. 

96 


NEWS,  TRADE,  AND  TRAVEL 


News, Trade, ana  Travcll 


.(^  ,   Pr;nt.,i   by  ).r  K„ 


N    the  early  days,    the  high- 
ways of  the  Cavalier  Colo- 
i^^is  /./       nies  were  the  broad  waters  of 

f^-^Wj'  bay  and  sound;  their  by-ways, 

-        M  the     innumerable     rivers     and 


creeks;  and  their  toll-gates,  the  ports  of  entry. 
Road-making  was  tedious  and  costly,  and  the  set- 
tlers saw  no  reason  for  wasting  time  and  energy 
in  the  undertaking,  when  nature  had  spread  her 
pathways  at  their  feet,  and  they  needed  only  to 
step  into  a  canoe,  or  a  skiff  manned  by  black 
oarsmen,  to  glide  from  one  plantation  to  another; 
or  to  hoist  sail  in  a  pinnace  for  distant  settlements. 
Many  animals  travel,  but  man  is  the  only  one  v.-ho 
packs  a  trunk,  and,  except  a  few  like  the  nautilus 
and  the  squirrel,  the  only  one  who  sails  a  boat. 
There  is  a  sentiment  connected  with  a  ship,  which 
no  other  conveyance  can  ever  have.  The  very 
names  of  those  old  colonial  vessels  are  redolent 
of  "amber-greece,"  "pearle,"  and  treasure,  of  East 
India  spices  and  seaweed 

"From  Bermuda's  reefs,  and  edges 
Of  sunken  ledges 
In  some  far-off  bright  Azore." 

99 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

The  history  of  the  colonies  might  be  written  in 
the  story  of  their  ships.  There  were  The  Good 
Speed,  The  Discovery,  and  The  Susan  Constant,  which 
preceded  the  world-famous  Half  Moon  and  May- 
floiver  to  the  new  world.  There  were  The  Ark 
and  The  Doi^e  that  brought  over  Lord  Baltimore  and 
his  colonists;  The  Sea-Venture \<\i\z\).  went  to  wreck 
on  the  Somer  Isles;  and  The  Patience,  and  The 
Deliverance  which  brought  her  crew  safe  to  Virginia. 
These  were  the  pioneers,  followed  by  a  long  line 
of  staunch  craft,  large  and  small,  from  the  Golden 
Lyon  to  The  Peggy  SteiL'art,  which  discharged  her 
cargo  of  taxed  tea  into  Chesapeake  Bay. 

Many  ships  in  those  days  were  named,  as  we 
name  chrysanthemums,  in  honor  of  some  promi- 
nent man  or  fair  dame.  These  good  folk  must 
have  followed  the  coming  and  going  of  their 
namesakes  with  curious  interest.  The  sight  of 
a  sail  on  the  horizon  never  lost  its  excite- 
ment, for  every  ship  brought  some  wild  tale 
of  adventure.  The  story  of  shipwreck  "  on  the 
still  vexed  Bermoothes,"  and  the  wonderful  es- 
cape of  Gates  and  Somers,  with  their  crew,  has 
been  made  famous  forever  by  the  tradition  that  it 
suggested  to  Shakespeare  the  plot  of  The  Tei/ipest; 
but  every  "frygat"  that  touched  at  Jamestown  or 
Annapolis  brought  accounts  almost  as  thrilling,  of 
storm  and  stress,  of  fighting  tempests  with  a  crew 

100 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

reduced  by  scurvy  to  three  or  four  active  seamen, 
of  running  for  days  from  a  Spanish  caravel  or 
a  French  pickaroune. 

The  Margaret  and  John  set  sail  for  America  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  carrying  eighty  pas- 
sengers, besides  sailors,  and  armed  with  "  eight 
Iron  peeces  and  a  Falcon."  When  she  reached 
the  "  He  of  Domenica,"  the  captain  entered  a  har- 
bor, that  the  men  might  stretch  their  limbs  on  dry 
land,  "  having  been  eleven  weeks  pestered  in  this 
vnwholesome  ship."  Here,  to  their  misfortune, 
they  found  two  large  ships  flying  Hollander 
colors,  but  proving  to  be  Spaniards.  These  ene- 
mies sent  a  volley  of  shot  which  split  the  oars  and 
made  holes  in  the  boats,  yet  failed  to  strike  a  man 
on  the  Margaret  and  John. 

"Perceiving  what  they  were,"  writes  one  of  the 
English  crew,  "  we  fitted  ourselves  the  best  we 
could  to  prevent  a  mischief:  seeing  them  warp 
themselves  to  windward,  we  thought  it  not  good 
to  be  boarded  on  both  sides  at  an  anchor;  we  in- 
tended to  set  saile,  but  the  Vice-Admiral  battered 
so  hard  at  our  starboard  side,  that  we  fell  to  our 
businesse,  and  answered  their  vnkindnesse  with 
such  faire  shot  from  a  demiculvering,  that  shot  her 
betweene  wind  and  water,  whereby  she  was  glad 
to  leave  us  and  her  Aumirall  together."  The  Ad- 
miral then  bespoke  them,  and  demanded  a   sur- 

lOI 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

render;  to  which  the  sturdy  English  replied  that 
they  had  no  quarrel  with  the  King  of  Spain, 
and  asked  only  to  go  their  way  unmolested,  but  as 
they  would  do  no  wrong,  assuredly  they  would 
take  none.  The  Spaniards  answered  these  bold 
words  with  another  volley  of  shot,  returned  with 
energy  by  the  English  guns. 

"  The  fight  continued  halfe  an  houre,  as  if  we 
had  been  invironed  with  fire  and  smoke,  untill  they 
discovered  the  waste  of  our  ship  naked,  where  they 
bravely  boorded  us,  loofe  for  loofe,  hasting  with 
pikes  and  swords  to  enter ;  but  it  pleased  God  so 
to  direct  our  Captaine  and  encourage  our  men  with 
valour,  that  our  pikes  being  formerly  placed  under 
our  halfe  deck,  and  certaine  shot  lying  close  for 
that  purpose  under  the  port  holes,  encountered 
them  so  rudely,  that  their  fury  was  not  onely  re- 
bated, but  their  hastinesse  intercepted,  and  their 
whole  company  beaten  backe ;  many  of  our  men 
were  hurt,  but  I  am  sure  they  had  two  for  one." 
Thus,  all  day  and  all  night,  the  unequal  battle  con- 
tinued, till  at  length  the  doughty  little  British 
vessel  fairly  fought  off  her  two  enemies,  and  they 
fell  sullenly  back  and  ran  near  shore  to  mend  their 
leaks,  while  the  Margaret  and  John  stood  on  her 
course. 

It  is  hard,  in  these  days,  when  the  high  seas  are 
as  safe  as  city  streets,  to  realize  the  condition  of 


The   Colonial    Caxalicr. 

terror  to  which  nicrchantnien  were  reduced,  two 
hundred  years  ago,  by  the  rumor  of  a  black  flag 
seen  in  the  offing,  or  of  some  "  pyrat"  lying  in  wait 
outside  the  harbor.  In  Governor  Spotswood's  time, 
Williamsburg  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  great  ex- 
citement by  the  report  that  the  dreaded  buccaneer 
John  Theach,  known  by  the  name  of  Blackbcard, 
had  been  seen  cruising  along  the  coasts  of  Virginia 
and  Carolina.  The  Governor  rose  to  the  occasion, 
however.  He  sent  out  Lieutenant  Maynard  with 
two  ships,  to  look  for  Blackbeard.  Maynard  found 
him  and  boarded  his  vessel  in  Pamlico  Sound.  The 
pirate  was  no  coward.  He  ordered  one  of  his  men 
to  stand  beside  the  powder-magazine  with  a  lighted 
match,  ready,  at  a  signal  from  him,  to  blow  up 
friends  and  foes  together.  The  signal  never  came, 
for  a  lucky  shot  killed  Blackbeard  on  the  spot  and 
his  crew  surrendered.  They  might  as  well  have 
died  with  their  leader,  for  thirteen  of  them  were 
hanged  at  Williamsburg.  Blackboard's  skull  was 
rimmed  with  silver  and  made  into  a  ghastly  drink- 
ing-cup,  and  we  hear  no  more  of  pirates  in  those 
waters. 

The  protection  of  vessels  was  not  the  only  rea- 
son for  policing  the  waterways.  Smuggling  was 
much  more  common  than  piracy,  and  the  laws 
against  it  were  the  harder  to  enforce,  because  the 
entire  community  was  secretly  in  sympathy  with 

i(>3 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

the  offenders.  In  the  earliest  Maryland  records  is 
Lord  Baltimore's  commission,  giving  his  lieuten- 
ant authority  to  "  appoint  fit  places  for  public  ports 
for  lading,  shipping,  unlading  and  discharging  all 
goods  and  merchandizes  to  be  imported  or  exported 
into  or  out  of  our  said  province,  and  to  prohibit 
the  shipping  or  discharging  of  any  goods  or  mer- 
chandizes whatsoever  in  all  other  places."  Any 
one  violating  the  shipping  law  was  subject  to 
heavy  fines  and  imprisonment. 

In  Virginia  the  statutes  compelled  ships  to  stop 
at  Jamestown,  or  other  designated  ports,  before 
breaking  bulk  at  the  private  landings  along  the 
river.  Who  can  picture  the  excitement  in  those 
lonely  plantations  when  the  frigate  tied  up  at  the 
wharf,  and  began  to  unload  from  its  hold,  its  cargo 
of  tools  for  the  farm,  furniture  for  the  house, 
and,  best  of  all,  the  square  white  letters  with  big 
round  seals,  containing  news  of  the  friends  distant 
a  three  months'  journey!  Sometimes  the  new 
comer  would  prove  no  ocean  voyager,  but  a  nearer 
neighbor,  some  stout,  round-sterned  packet,  from 
New  Netherland  or  New  England,  laden  with  grain 
and  rum,  or  hides  and  rum,  to  be  exchanged  for 
the  tobacco  of  the  Old  Dominion. 

To  journey  from  one  colony  to  another  thus,  the 
trader  must  first  secure  a  license  and  take  oath  that 
he  would  not  sell  or  give  arms  or  ammunition  to 

104 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

the-  Indians.  On  these  terms  Lord  Baltimore, 
in  1637,  granted  to  a  merchant  mariner,  liberty 
"to  trade  and  commerce  for  corn,  beaver  or  any 
other  commodities  with  the  Dutchmen  on  Hudson's 
river,  or  with  any  Indians  or  other  people  whatso- 
ever being  or  inhabiting  to  the  northward,  with- 
out the  capes  commonly  called  Cape  Henry  and 
Cape  Charles." 

Long  after  the  waters  of  Chesapeake  Bay  were 
dotted  with  sails,  and  the  creeks  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia  gay  with  skiffs,  the  land  communication 
was  still  in  an  exceedingly  primitive  condition. 
The  roads  were  little  more  than  bridle-paths. 
The  surveyors  deemed  their  duty  done  if  the  logs 
and  fallen  trees  were  cleared  away,  and  all  Vir- 
ginia could  not  boast  of  a  single  engineer.  Bridges 
there  were  none;  and  the  traveller,  arriving 
at  a  river  bank,  must  find  a  ford,  or  swim  his 
horse  across,  counting  himself  fortunate  if  he 
kept  his  pouch  of  tobacco  dry.  Planters  at 
a  distance  from  the  rivers  hewed  out  rolling- 
roads,  on  which  they  brought  down  their  tobacco 
in  casks,  attached  to  the  horses  that  drew  them 
by  hoop-pole  shafts.  Roads,  winding  along  the 
streams,  were  slowly  laid  out,  and  answered  well 
enough  in  fair  weather,  but  in  storms  they  were 
impassable,  and  at  night  so  bewildering  that  be- 
lated  travellers  were  forced  to  come  to  a  halt,  make 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

a  fire,  and  bivouac  till  morning.  In  1704,  the 
roads  in  Maryland  were  so  poor  that  we  find  the 
Assembly  passing  an  act  declaring  that  "  the  roads 
leading  to  any  county  court-house  shall  have  two 
notches  on  the  trees  on  both  sides  of  the  roads, 
and  another  notch  a  distance  above  the  other  two; 
and  any  road  that  leads  to  any  church  shall  be 
marked,  into  the  entrance  of  the  same,  and  at  the 
leaving  any  other  road,  with  a  slip  cut  down  the 
face  of  the  tree  near  the  ground."  Guide-posts 
were  still  unknown. 

The  travel  was  as  primitive  as  the  roads.  Pub- 
lic coaches  did  not  exist.  Horseback  riding  was 
the  usual  way  of  getting  over  the  ground,  though 
the  rough  roads  made  the  jolting  a  torment. 
"Travelling  in  this  country,"  wrote  a  stranger, 
as  late  as  the  Revolution,  "  is  extremely  dan- 
gerous, especially  if  it  is  the  least  windy,  from 
the  number  of  rotten  pines  continually  blowing 
down."  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  driver 
to  be  obliged  to  turn  into  the  woods  half  a  dozen 
times  in  a  single  mile  to  avoid  the  fallen  logs. 
A  certain  Madame  de  Riedcsel  who  was  driv- 
ing in  a  post-chaise  with  her  children,  had  a 
narrow  escape  from  death.  A  rotten  tree  fell 
directly  across  her  path,  but  fortunately  struck 
between  the  chaise  and  the  horses,  so  that  the 
occupants    of    the    carriage    escaped,    though    the 

106 


li:^ 


i?^ 


.:/  'i 


^r 


p,i 


^- 


j>:r.2C 


<v  ~^- 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

front  wheels  were  crushed,  and  one  of  the  horses 
lamed. 

Between  pirates  on  sea  and  pine-trees  on  land,  so 
many  perils  beset  the  traveller  that  starting  on  a 
journey  became  a  momentous  undertaking-.  "  It 
was  no  uncommon  thing,"  writes  the  historian, 
"  for  one  who  went  on  business  or  pleasure  from 
Charleston  to  Boston  or  New  York,  if  he  were  a 
prudent  and  cautious  man,  to  consult  the  almanac 
before  setting  out,  to  make  his  will,  to  give  a  din- 
ner or  a  supper  to  his  friends  at  the  tavern,  and 
there  to  bid  them  a  formal  goodbye." 

A  journey  being  so  great  an  affair,  the  traveller 
was  of  course  a  marked  man,  and  his  arrival  at  an 
ordinary  was  the  signal  for  the  gathering  of  all 
who  could  crowd  in  to  hear  of  his  adventures,  and 
also  to  hear  the  public  and  private  news  of  which 
he  might  be  the  bearer.  "  I  have  heard  Dr. 
Franklin  relate  with  great  pleasantry,"  said  one 
of  his  friends,  "  that  in  travelling  when  he  was 
young,  the  first  step  he  took  for  his  tranquillity 
and  to  obtain  immediate  attention  at  the  inns,  was 
to  anticipate  inquiry,  by  saying:  'My  name  is 
Benjamin  Franklin.  I  was  born  at  Boston,  am  a 
printer  by  profession,  am  travelling  to  Philadel- 
phia, shall  have  to  return  at  such  n  time,  and  have 
no  news.     Now  what  can  you  give  me  for  dinner?'  " 

This  curiosity  was  rather  peculiar  to  New  Eng- 
109 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

land.  The  Southerner,  while  perhaps  as  anxious 
to  hear  the  news,  was  more  restrained  in  asking 
questions.  That  good  breeding  and  tact  which 
were  a  Cavalier  inheritance,  taught  him  to  wait 
decorously  for  his  news  as  for  his  food.  A  for- 
eigner in  the  last  century,  in  travelling  through 
the  South,  came  upon  a  party  of  Virginians  smok- 
ing and  drinking  together  on  a  veranda.  He  re- 
ports that  on  his  ascending  the  steps  to  the  piazza, 
every  countenance  seemed  to  say,  'This  man  has  a 
double  claim  to  our  attention,  for  he  is  a  stranger 
in  the  place ! '  In  a  moment,  there  was  room  made 
for  him  to  sit  down ;  a  new  bowl  was  called  for,  and 
every  one  who  addressed  him  did  it  with  a  smile 
of  conciliation ;  but  no  man  asked  him  whence  he 
had  come  or  whither  he  was  going. " 

All  foreigners  bear  the  same  testimony  to  this 
universal  courtesy,  which  smoothed  rough  roads 
and  made  travelling  enjoyable,  in  spite  of  its  diffi- 
culties and  dangers.  When  I  realize  what  those 
difficulties  were,  I  am  surprised  at  the  willing- 
ness with  which  journeys  were  undertaken.  I 
read  of  Washington  setting  out  on  a  mission  to 
Major-General  Shirley  in  Boston,  and  riding  the 
whole  distance  of  five  hundred  miles  on  horseback 
in  the  depth  of  winter,  escorted  only  by  a  few 
servants;  yet  little  is  made  of  his  experiences. 
Women,    too,    were   quite   accustomed   to   riding 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

on  long  expeditions.  An  octogenarian  described 
to  Irving  the  horseback  journeys  of  his  mother 
in  her  scarlet  cloth  riding-habit.  "  Young  ladies 
from  the  country,"  he  said,  "used  to  come  to  tlie 
balls  at  Annapolis,  riding,  with  their  hoops  ar- 
ranged fore  ami  aft  like  lateen  sails;  and  after 
dancing  all  night,  would  ride  home  again  in  the 
morning." 

Annapolis,  before  the  Revolution,  was  a  centre 
of  gayety.  Its  rich  families  came  up  to  town  for 
the  season  each  Fall,  and  in  the  vSpring  moved 
back  to  their  country-houses  with  their  various 
belongings.  The  family  coach  which  was  used  to 
transport  these  possessions  was  a  curious  affair  to 
modern  eyes.  It  was  colored  generally  a  light 
yellow,  with  smart  facings.  The  body  was  of 
mahogany,  with  Venetian  windows  on  each  side, 
projecting  lamps,  and  a  high  seat  upon  which 
coachman  and  footman  climbed  at  starting. 

As  this  old  coach  lumbered  up  and  down  the 
streets  of  Annapolis,  its  occupants  no  doubt  fan- 
cied that  they  had  reached  the  final  limit  of  speed 
and  comfort  in  travel,  and  they  looked  back  with 
scorn  and  pity  on  the  primitive  conveyances  of 
their  ancestors,  just  as  posterity  will  doubtless  look 
back  from  their  balloons  and  electric  motors  on  our 
steam  engines.  In  one  of  Jefferson's  early  letters 
we  chance  upon  a  curious  prophecy.     Being  about 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

to  make  a  visit,  he  asks  to  be  met  by  his  friend's 
"  periagua, "  as  a  canoe  was  called,  and  suggests  that 
some  day  a  boat  may  be  made,  which  shall  row 
itself. 

After  all,  I  question  whether  there  was  not  more 
pleasure  in  travel  in  those  days,  before  boats  rowed 
themselves,  and  when  horses  were  made  of  flesh 
and  blood  instead  of  iron  and  steam ;  when  the 
rider  ambled  along,  noting  each  tree  and  shrub, 
pausing  to  exchange  greetings  with  every  wa}-- 
farer,  and  stopping  by  night  beneath  some  hos- 
pitable roof  to  make  merry  over  the  cup  of  sack 
or  the  glass  of  "  quince  drink"  prepared  for  his 
refreshment.  If  the  traveller  was  of  a  surly  and  un- 
social nature,  he  was  indeed  to  be  pitied ;  since,  for 
him  who  would  not  accept  his  neighbor's  hospital- 
ity, there  remained  onl}-  the  roadside  tavern  or  "  or- 
dinary," and  woe  to  him  who  was  compelled  to  test 
its  welcome!  The  universal  practice  of  keeping 
open-house  made  the  inns  poorer  in  quality,  and 
the  contempt  of  the  community  for  one  who  would 
receive  money  for  the  entertainment  of  guests, 
kept  men  of  repute  out  of  the  business. 

A  Maryland  statute,  in  1674,  resolves  "that  noe 
Person  in  that  Province  shall  have  a  Licence  to 
keep  Ordinary  for  the  future  but  th*  he  shall  give 
Bond  to  his  Excellency  with  good  Sureties  that  he 
shall  keep  foure  good  ffeather  beds  for  the  Enter- 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

tjinment  of  Customers."  In  any  place  where  the 
county  court  is  held,  he  is  directed  to  keep  "  eight 
ffeather  or  fHock  beds  at  the  least,  and  ffurniture 
suitable."  The  charges  of  the  ordinary-keeper 
are  fixed  by  law.  He  is  allowed  to  charge  ten 
pounds  of  tobacco  per  meal  "for  dyet,"  ten  pounds 
"  for  small  beare, "  and  four  "  for  lodging  in  a  bed 
with  sheets. " 

While  the  traveller  was  loitering  on  the  road, 
enjoying  hospitality  or  enduring  ordinaries,  those 
he  left  at  home  were  in  ignorance  of  his  where- 
abouts; and  it  was  only  after  days  or  weeks  of 
anxious  waiting,  that  they  could  hope  to  hear  of 
his  safe  arrival  at  his  destination.  Meanwhile 
rumoi,  which  always  thrives  in  proportion  to 
ignorance,  might  make  their  lives  miserable  by 
reports  of  a  riderless  horse  seen  galloping  into 
some  village,  of  storms  and  gales,  or  of  trees  crash- 
ing across  the  lonely  roads.  In  the  absence  of  the 
post  and  the  telegraph,  this  spreading  of  false 
news  became  so  troublesome  that  an  act  was 
passed  in  Maryland  declaring  that,"  Whereas  many 
Idle  and  Bussie-headed  people  doe  forge  and  di- 
vulge falce  Rumors  and  Reports,"  it  is  enacted 
that  they  be  either  fined  or  "  receive  such  cor- 
porall  punishment,  not  extending  to  life  or  mem- 
ber, as  to  the  lustices  of  that  court  shall  seeme 
meete. " 

113 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

It  was  long  before  the  idea  of  a  postal  service 
under  government  control  dawned  upon  the  Col- 
onies. Throughout  almost  the  whole  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century  letters  were  sent  by  the  hand  of 
the  chance  traveller.  Maryland  directed  that  in 
the  case  of  public  state-papers  the  sheriff  of  one 
county  should  carry  them  to  the  sheriff  of  the 
next,  and  so  on  to  their  goal ;  but  private  letters 
had  no  such  official  care. 

An  old  Virginia  statute  commanded  that  "  all 
letters  superscribed/*?;-  thepublique  service,  should  be 
immediately  conveyed  from  plantation  to  planta- 
tion to  the  place  and  person  directed,  under  the 
penalty  of  one  hogshead  of  tobacco  for  each  de- 
fault." 

Another  law,  bearing  date  1661,  orders  that 
"  when  there  is  any  person  in  the  family  where 
the  letters  come,  as  can  write,  such  person  is  re- 
quired to  endorse  the  day  and  houre  he  received 
them,  that  the  neglect  or  contempt  of  any  person 
stopping  them  may  be  the  better  knowne  and  pun- 
ished accordingly." 

A  letter  in  those  days  merited  the  attention  it 
received,  for  it  represented  a  vast  deal  of  labor 
and  expense.  Paper  was  a  costly  luxury,  as  we 
may  infer  from  those  old  yellow  pages  crossed  and 
re-crossed  with  writing,  and  the  tiny  cramped  hand 
in  which  the  old  sermons  are  written.     In  1680,  I 

114 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

find  Colonel  William  Fitzhugh  ordering  from  Lon- 
don "  two  large  Paper-Books,  one  to  contain  about 
fourteen  or  fifteen  quires  of  paper,  the  other  ahont 
ten  quires,  and  one  other  small  one." 

The  paper  was  left  blank  on  one  side,  and  so 
folded  that  it  formed  its  own  envelope.  It  was 
fastened  with  a  seal  whose  taste  and  elegance  was 
a  matter  of  pride  with  the  writer.  The  style  was 
formal,  as  became  the  dignity  of  a  person  who 
knew  how  to  write.  In  those  times  people  did  not 
write  letters;  they  indited  epistles.  A  communi- 
cation sent  across  the  ocean,  in  1614,  is  addressed 
"  To  y''  Truly  Honorable  &  Right  Worthy  Knight, 
S' Thomas  Smith,"  and  is  signed:  "At  Y'  Com- 
mand To  Be  Disposed  of." 

Love-letters  shared  the  formality  of  the  time, 
and  were  written  with  a  stateliness  and  elaboration 
of  compliment  which  suggest  a  minuet  on  paper. 
Family  letters  are  often  in  the  form  of  a  journal, 
and  cover  a  period  of  months.  They  cost  both 
labor  and  money  but  they  were  worth  their  price. 
Cheap  postage  has  made  cheap  writing.  We  no 
longer  compose;  we  only  scribble. 

In  1693,  Thomas  Neale  was  appointed  by  royal 
patent,  "  postmaster-general  of  Virginia  and  all 
other  parts  of  North  America.'^  The  House  of  Bur- 
gesses passed  an  Act  declaring  that  if  post-oflfices 
were  established    in  every  county,   Neale  should 

115 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 


receive  threepence  for  every  letter  not  exceeding 
one  sheet,  or  to  or  from  any  place  not  exceeding 
four  score  English  miles  distance. 

In  1706,  letters  were  forwarded  eight  times  a 
year  from  Philadelphia  to  the  Potomac,  and  after- 
ward as  far  as  Williamsburg,  with  the  proviso  that 

the  post  -  rider  should 
not  start  for  Philadel- 
phia till  he  had  received 
enough  letters  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  trip. 

The  average  day's 
journey  for  a  postman 
covered  a  distance  of 
some  forty  miles  in 
Summer,  and  over  good 
roads;  but,  when  the 
heavy  Autumn  rains 
washed  out  great  gullies 
in  his  path  or  the  Winter 
storms  beat  him  back,  he  was  lucky  if  he  accom- 
plished half  that  distance.  His  letters  were  sub- 
ject to  so  many  accidents,  that  it  is  a  wonder 
they  ever  reached  the  persons  to  whom  they  were 
addressed.  It  was  not  till  the  post-office  passed 
into  Franklin's  energetic  and  methodical  hands 
that  it  was  made  regular  and  trustworthy. 

The  estimate  of  the  common  post  in  early  days 
116 


The  Colonial  Cavdlicr. 

is  curiously  illustrated  by  an  episode  which  oc- 
curred in  Virginia.  The  hero  was  one  Mr.  Daniel 
Park,  "who,"  says  the  chronicle,  "to  all  the  other 
accomplishments  that  make  a  complete  sparkish 
gentleman,  has  added  one  upon  which  he  infinitely 
values  himself;  that  is,  a  quick  resentment  of 
every,  the  least  thing,  that  looks  like  an  alTront  or 
injury." 

One  September  morning,  when  the  Governor  of 
Maryland  was  breakfasting  with  Mr.  Commissary 
Blair  at  Middle  Plantation,  Colonel  Park  marched 
in  upon  them,  having  a  sword  about  him,  much 
longer  than  what  he  commonly  travelled  with, 
and  which  he  had  caused  to  be  ground  sharp  in 
the  point  that  morning.  Addressing  himself  to 
the  Governor  of  Maryland,  he  burst  out :  "  Cap- 
tain Nicholson,  did  yoia  receive  a  letter  that  I  sent 
you  from  New  York?" 

"Yes,"  answered  Nicholson,  "  I  received  it." 

"And  was  it  done  like  a  gentleman,"  fumed  the 
fiery  colonel,  "  to  send  that  letter  by  the  hand  of 
a  common  post,  to  be  read  by  everybody  in  Vir- 
ginia? I  look  upon  it  as  an  affront,  and  expect 
satisfaction!" 

Fancy  the  number  of  affairs  of  honor  that  this 
"  complete  young  sparkish  gentleman  "  would  have 
on  hand  if  he  lived  in  the  present  year  of  grace  and 
resented  every  letter  sent  him  by  the  common  post ! 

tl7 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

There  is  something  which  strikes  us  as  infinitely 
diverting  in  his  suggestion  that  everybody  in  Vir- 
ginia would  be  interested  in  his  letter.  But  per- 
haps he  was  nearer  the  truth  than  we  realize,  for 
in  his  day  all  news  came  through  such  sources, 
and  a  letter  was  regarded  as  a  good  thing,  which 
it  would  be  gross  selfishness  not  to  share  with 
one's  neighbors.  As  for  a  letter  from  Europe  it 
was  an  affair  of  the  greatest  magnitude,  exciting 
the  interest  of  the  whole  community. 

Those  giant  folios  which  entertain  us  every 
morning  with  their  gossip  from  all  quarters  of  the 
globe  had  no  existence  then.  Early  in  the  last 
century,  the  Colonial  Cavalier  gleaned  all  his 
knowledge  of  the  world  and  its  affairs,  from  some 
three-month-old  copy  of  the  London  papers  and 
magazines,  brought  over  by  a  British  packet. 
Even  this  communication,  it  seems,  was  uncertain, 
for  complaint  is  made  that  the  masters  of  vessels 
keep  the  packages  till  an  accidental  conveyance 
offers,  and  for  want  of  better  opportunities  fre- 
quently commit  them  to  boatmen,  who  care  very 
little  for  their  goods,  so  they  get  their  freight. 

The  colonists  had  struggled  to  establish  a  local 
journal,  and  a  printing  press  had  been  started  in 
Virginia  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  it  had  been 
strangled  in  its  infancy  by  Berkeley,  who  declared 
it  the  parent  of  treason  and  infidelity ;  and  so  it 

ii8 


The   Colonial   Cawilier. 

came  about  that  the  Southern  Pr(A'inces  had  no 
public  utterance  for  tlieir  news  or  tlieir  views,  till 
the  silence  was  broken  by  the  voice  of  Maryland, 
speaking  throuj4h  her  Gazette,  in  1727,  when  in  all 
America  there  were  only  six  rival  sheets.  Frank- 
lin says  that  his  brother's  friends  tried  to  dissuade 
him  from  publishing  The  New  England  Courant,  on 
the  ground  that  there  was  already  one  newspaper 
in  America.  His  memory  lapsed  a  little,  as  llie 
Courant  had  in  fact  three  predecessors,  but  the  in- 
cident shows  how  little  notion  there  was  at  that 
time,  of  the  public  demand  for  news. 

In  1736,  was  first  issued  The  Virginia  Gazette,  a 
dingy  little  sheet  about  twelve  by  six  inches  in 
size,  and  costing  to  subscribers,  fifteen  shillings  a 
year.  The  newspaper  of  the  day  had  no  editorial 
page.  Its  comments  on  public  affairs  were  in  the 
form  of  letters,  after  the  fashion  of  The  Tatlcr  and 
The  Spectator.  It  had  a  poet's  corner,  where  many 
a  young  versemaker  tried  the  wings  of  his  Pegasus, 
and  it  printed  also  poetical  tributes  under  the  no- 
tices of  deaths  and  marriages.  In  this  section,  after 
the  record  of  the  wedding  of  Mr.  William  Derri- 
coat  and  Miss  Suckie  Tomkies,  appear  these  lines: 

"  Hers  the  mild  lustre  of  the  blooming  morn 
And  his  the  radiance  of  the  rising  day— 
Long  may  they  live  and  mutually  possess 
A  steady  love  and  genuine  happiness  1" 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

When  Edmund  Randolph  married  Betsey  Nich- 
olas, the  poet  found  himself  unable  to  express  his 
emotions  in  less  than  two  stanzas: 

"  Exalted  theme,  too  high  for  common  lays ! 
Could  my  weak  muse  with  beauty  be  inspired, 
In  numbers  smooth  I'd  chant  my  Betsy's  praise. 
And  tell  how  much  her  Randolph  is  admired. 

"To  light  the  hymeneal  torch,  since  they're  resolved, 
Kind  Heaven,  I  trust,  will  make  them  truly  blest; 
And  when  the  Gordian  knot  shall  be  dissolved, 
Translate  them  to  eternal  peace  and  rest. " 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  this  figure,  comparing  matri- 
mony with  a  Gordian  knot,  was  original  with  the 
poet.  Had  the  bridegroom  been  as  fiery  and 
"sparkish"  as  Colonel  Park,  he  might  have  called 
out  the  writer,  but  he  seems  to  have  taken  it  in 
good  part. 

The  prospectus  of  the  Maryland  Gazette  for  1745 
announces  that  its  price  will  be  twelve  shillings  a 
year,  or  fourteen  shillings  sealed  and  delivered. 
It  promises  the  freshest  advices,  foreign  and  do- 
mestic, but  adds,  with  much  simplicity  and  can- 
dor: "In  a  dearth  of  news,  which  in  this  remote 
part  of  the  world  may  sometimes  reasonably  be 
expected,  we  shall  study  to  supply  the  deficit  by 
presenting  our  readers  with  the  best  material  we 
can  possibly  collect,  having  always  due  regard  to 


The  Colonial   Ca\alicr. 

the  promotion  of  virtue  and  Icarninj^-,  the  sup- 
pression of  vice  and  immorality,  and  the  instruc- 
tion as  well  as  entertainment  of  our  readers." 
What  more  could  the  most  exacting  subscriber 
demand? 

Advertisements,  then,  as  now,  served  the  double 
purpose  of  filling  space,  and  supporting  the  paper. 
They  were  charged  for,  at  the  rate  of  five  shillings 
for  the  first  week,  and  one  shilling  for  each  week 
following,  provided  they  were  of  moderate  length 
— a  vague  provision,  one  would  say.  These  old 
advertisements  are  of  great  value  to  the  student 
of  the  life  of  the  past.  They  give  a  better  picture 
of  the  condition  of  society,  than  a  ream  of  "notes." 
Here  we  read  of  the  shipping  of  a  crew  on  a 
packet  bound  for  England.  Half-way  down  the 
column  a  lost  hog  is  advertised,  and  here,  Edward 
Morris,  breeches-maker,  announces  a  sale  of  buck- 
skin breeches,  and  gloves  with  high  tops,  and  as- 
sures his  customers  that  "  they  may  depend  on  kind 
usage  at  reasonable  rates."  Surely  the  resources 
of  modern  advertising  have  never  devised  any- 
thing more  alluring  than  this  promise  of  "kind 
usage  at  reasonable  rates." 

Since  the  art  of  reading  was  unknown  to  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  community,  it  was  natu- 
ral that  pictorial  devices  should  be  largely  used. 
Not  only   were  the   shops    along   the    highways 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

distinguished  by  such  signs  as  "the  Blue  Glove," 
and  "the  Golden  Keys,"  with  appropriate  illus- 
trations; but  in  the  advertising  columns  of  the 
papers,  the  print  was  re-enforced  by  pictures  of 
ships  and  horses,  and  runaway  slaves. 

The  purchase  and  sale  of  negroes  formed  a 
standing  advertisement,  beneath  the  caption  of 
an  auction-block. 

In  the  Virginia  Gazette  of  August,  1767,  we  find 
the  following  under  the  curious  headline: 

"Sale  of  a  Musical  Slave." 

"  A  valuable  young  handsome  Negro  fellow, 
about  18  or  20  j'ears  of  age;  has  every  qualifica- 
tion of  a  genteel  and  sensible  servant,  and  has 
been  in  many  different  parts  of  the  world.  He 
shaves,  dresses  hair,  and  plays  on  the  French  horn. 
He  lately  came  from  London,  and  has  with  him 
two  suits  of  new  clothes,  which  the  purchaser  may 
have  with   him.      Inquire  at  the  printing  office." 

It  is  hard  to  understand  why  the  owner  should 
wish  to  part  with  a  prodigy  possessed  of  so  many 
accomplishments.  Perhaps  his  playing  on  the 
French  horn  is  the  explanation. 

Runaway  servants,  both  black  and  white,  form 
the  subject  of  many  advertisements  in  those  old 
newspapers.     In  the  Maryland  Gazette  (1769)  ap- 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

pears  a  description  in  rliyme  of  the  disappearance 
of  an  indented  servant : 

"Last  Wednesday  morn  at  break  of  day, 
From  Philadelphia  ran  away 
An  Irishman,  named  John  McKeogn. 
To  fraud  and  imposition  prone, 
About  five  feet  five  inches  high  ; 
Can  curse  and  swear,  as  well  as  lie. 
How  old  he  is  I  can't  engage. 
Hut  forty-five  is  near  his  age. 

"He  oft  in  conversation  chatters 
Of  Scripture  and  religious  matters, 
And  fain  would  to  the  world  impart 
That  virtue  lodges  in  his  heart. 
But,  take  the  rogue  from  stem  to  stern, 
The  hypocrite  you'll  soon  discern 

"And  find,  though  his  deportment's  civil, 
A  saint  without,  within  a  devil. 
Whoe'er  secures  said  John  McKeogn, 
(Provided  I  should  get  my  own) , 
Shall  have  from  me  in  cash  paid  down 
Five  dollar  bills,  and  half-a-crown." 

Mary  Nelson  is  the  owner  and  poet,  or,  in  the 
fashion  of  the  day,  I  should  say  poetess,  and  per- 
haps mcneress,  as  I  find  it  recorded  of  Mary  God- 
dard  that  she  was  postmistress  of  Baltimore  and 
Printress  and  Editress  of  the  Baiiimore  Journal. 

The  world  moves.  The  nuction-block.  and  the 
123 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

runaway  slave,  with  his  bundle  on  his  back,  have 
disappeared  from  among  the  pictures  in  the  ad- 
vertising column ;  the  packet  has  given  way  to  the 
ocean  steamer ;  the  horse  to  the  bicycle ;  the  stage 
coach  to  the  railroad ;  the  little  provincial  gazettes, 
with  their  coarse  gray  paper  and  blurred  type,  to 
the  great  dailies,  as  large  as  the  Bible  and  as 
doubtful  as  the  Apocrypha.  I  wonder  if  another 
century  will  have  such  astounding  tales  to  tell  of 
progress  in  news,  trade  and  travel ! 

124 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  FOES 


His  Fricndes; 

FoCii. 


TI I  E    early   adventurers    had 
never    seen    anything    of 
savage  life  till   they   touched  the 
shores    of    Virginia.       Everything 
■'       connected    with    the   strange    beings 
there  was   full  of  interest.     They  set  down  viva- 
ciously whatever  they  saw,  and  a  good  deal  more 
besides. 

The  Susquehannocks  impressed  them  most  of  all 
the  Indian  tribes.  Their  enormous  height  and 
fine  proportions  made  them  look  like  giants,  and 
their  attire  was  as  impressive  as  their  persons. 
One  who  saw  them,  writes  home  in  those  first 
pioneer  days:  "Their  attire  is  the  skinnes  of 
Beares  and  Woolves.  Some  have  Cassacks  made 
of  Beares  heads  and  skinnes  that  a  mans  head  goes 
through  the  skinnes  neck,  and  the  eares  of  the 
Beare  fastened  to  his  shoulders,  the  nose  and  teeth 
hanging  downe  his  breast,  another  Beares  face 
split  behind  him,  and  at  the  end  of  the  nose  hung 
a  Pawe.  The  half  sleeves  comming  to  the  elbowes 
were  the  neckes  of  Beares  and  the  armes  through 

127 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

the  mouth  with  pawes  hanging  at  their  noses. 
One  had  the  head  of  a  Wolfe  hanging  in  a  chaine 
for  a  lewell." 

One  of  their  chiefs  specially  impressed  the  Eng- 
lish. He  was  a  giant  among  giants.  The  calf  of 
his  leg  was  three-quarters  of  a  yard  round,  and 
"the  rest  of  his  limbs  answerable  to  that  propor- 
tion." His  arrows  were  five  quarters  long,  and  he 
wore  a  wolf's  skin  at  his  back  for  a  quiver. 
The  picture  of  this  Indian  Hercules  accompanied 
the  maps  which  Captain  Smith  sent  home  to  en- 
lighten the  Company  in  England. 

The  stories  of  the  different  adventurers  were 
gathered  together  and  printed  as  "  The  General 
History  of  Virginia."  The  volume  was  adorned 
(I  cannot  say  illustrated)  by  a  series  of  woodcuts, 
which  make  us  laugh  aloud  by  their  inaccuracy. 
The  Indians  are  simply  gigantic  Englishmen 
naked  and  beardless,  with  the  hair  standing  in  a 
stiff  ridge  on  top  of  the  head,  like  a  cock's  comb. 
The  wigwams  look  like  haystacks,  and  the  canoes 
like  bathtubs.  What  a  collection  of  pictures  we 
might  have  had,  if  a  kodak  had  been  among  the 
possessions  of  Captain  Smith  and  his  company! 
We  should  see  King  Pamaunche  with  "  the  chaine 
of  pearles  round  his  necke  thrice  double,  the  third 
parte  of  them  as  bygg  as  pease,"  and  catch  a  view 
of  his  "  pallace"  with  its  hundred-acre  garden  set 

128 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

willi  beans,  pease,  tobacco,  gourdes,  pompions, 
"  and  other  thinges  iinknownc  to  us  in  our  tongue." 
We  should  have  the  interiors  of  the  smoky  wig- 
wams which  Spelman  and  Archer  visited,  the 
forms  of  the  squaws  dimly  outlined  against  the 
grimy  mat,  as  the}'  pounded  corn,  or  dropped  the 
bread  into  the  kettle  to  boil. 

Thanks  to  John  Smith's  graphic  pen,  we  have 
a  picture  of  Powhatan,  that  fierce  old  ancestor  of 
so  many  first  families  of  Virginia,  almost  as  vivid  as 
a  photograph.  Smith  went  to  visit  him,  and  found 
him  proudly  lying  upon  a  bedstead  a  foot  high, 
upon  ten  or  twelve  mats.  "  At  head  sat  a  wo- 
man, at  his  feet  another.  On  each  side,  sitting 
upon  a  mat  upon  the  ground,  were  ranged  his  chief 
men,  on  each  side  the  fire,  five  or  ten  in  rank,  and 
behind  them  as  many  young  women,  each  a  great 
chaine  of  white  beads  over  their  shoulders,  their 
heads  painted  in  red,  and  with  such  a  grave  and 
majestical  countenance  as  drove  us  into  admira- 
tion to  see  such  state  in  a  naked  savage." 

We  might  suppose  these  last  words  applied  to 
the  women,  instead  of  to  Powhatan,  did  we  not 
know  how  little  state  and  majesty  were  allowed 
these  copper-colored  Griseldas.  The  Indian  squaws 
were  little  more  than  slaves.  When  the  braves 
moved,  it  was  the  squaws  who  carried  the  wigwams 
and   set  them  up  in  the  new  camp.     When  the 

I2Q 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

men  sat  at  meals,  they  spread  the  mats,  waited 
upon  their  masters,  and  finally  contented  their  ap- 
petites with  the  remnants  of  the  feast.  In  the 
field,  too,  they  bore  the  brunt  of  the  toil :  "  Let 
squaws  and  hedgehogs  scratch  the  ground,"  said 
an  old  warrior;  "man  was  made  for  war  and  the 
chase." 

Yet,  wretched  and  abused  as  these  women  were, 
they  seemed  content  with  their  lot,  and  when  their 
husbands  died,  they  not  only  mourned  for  them,  but 
seemed  quite  ready  to  enter  the  same  servitude 
with  a  new  master.  "  I  once  saw  a  young  widow," 
said  Jefferson,  "  whose  husband,  a  warrior,  had 
died  about  eight  days  before,  hastening  to  finish 
her  grief,  and  who,  by  tearing  her  hair,  beating 
her  breast,  and  drinking  spirits,  made  the  tears 
flow  in  great  abundance  in  order  that  she  might 
grieve  much  in  a  short  space  of  time,  and  be  mar- 
ried that  evening  to  another  young  warrior." 

Spelman,  a  Virginia  adventurer  who,  in  the 
course  of  one  of  his  exploring  trips,  witnessed 
an  Indian  wedding,  has  left  us  an  account  of  the 
ceremony.  "Ye  man,"  he  says,  "goes  not  unto 
any  place  to  be  married,  but  ye  woman  is  brought 
to  him  where  he  dwelleth.  At  her  coming,  her 
father  or  cheefe  frend  ioynes  the  hands  togither, 
and  then  ye  father,  or  cheefe  frend  of  the  man, 
bringeth  a  longe  string  of  beades  and,  measuringe 

130 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

his  armes  leangth  thereof,  doth  breake  it  over  ye 
handes  of  those  that  ar  to  be  married  while  their 
handes  be  ioyned  together  and  gives  it  unto  ye 
woman's  father  or  him  that  brings  hir.  And  so, 
with  much  mirth  and  feastinge  they  go  togither. " 

This  "  longe  string  of  beades"  of  which  Spelman 
spoke,  was  probably  made  of  \.h.e  peak  and  roanoke, 
which  made  the  riches  of  the  Indian,  and  served 
him  at  once  for  money  and  ornament.  Both  were 
made  from  shell — one  dark,  the  other  white.  The 
darker  was  the  more  valuable,  and  was  distin- 
guished as  wampum  peak.  The  English  traders 
accepted  it  as  coinage,  and  reckoned  its  value  at 
eighteen  pence  a  yard,  while  the  white  peak  sold 
for  ninepence.  In  the  proceedings  of  the  Mary- 
land Council  we  find  Thomas  Cornwaleys  licensed 
to  trade  with  the  Indians  for  corn,  roanoke,  and 
peak. 

When  the  red  men  wished  to  make  bargains 
with  the  English,  before  interpreters  had  been 
trained  to  speak  both  languages,  the  counting  was 
done  by  dropping  beans,  one  by  one,  amid  total 
silence.  Woe  to  the  offender  who  interrupted  an 
Indian  during  this  critical  operation,  or  indeed  at 
any  time!  An  interruption  was  looked  upon  as 
an  unpardonable  affront.  Once,  in  the  time  of 
Bacon's  Rebellion,  an  Indian  chief,  accompanied 
by  several  of  his  tribe,  came  to  negotiate  a  treat}' 

131 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

of  peace  with  the  English.  In  the  course  of  the 
Werrowance's  address,  one  of  his  attendants  ven- 
tiired  to  put  in  a  word.  Instantly,  the  chief 
snatched  a  tomahawk  from  his  girdle,  split  the 
poor  fellow's  skull,  motioned  to  his  companions  to 
carry  him  out,  and  continued  his  speech  as  calmly 
as  though  nothing  had  happened. 

The  lack  of  ceremony  in  the  white  men's  ad- 
dress, and  the  frequency  with  which  they  inter- 
rupted, struck  the  Indian  as  amazing  and  unpar- 
donable. There  is  a  tradition  that  one  of  the 
early  preachers  strove  to  teach  an  old  Indian  brave 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The  Indian  heard 
him  calmly  to  the  end,  and  then  began  in  his  turn  to 
tell  of  the  Great  vSpirit  who  spoke  in  the  thunder, 
and  whose  smile  was  the  sunshine.  In  the  midst 
of  his  discourse,  the  clergyman  broke  in,  "  But  all 
this  is  not  true. "  The  Indian,  turning  to  the  circle 
around,  remarked :  "  What  sort  of  man  is  this?  He 
has  been  talking  for  an  hour  of  his  three  Gods,  and 
now  he  will  not  let  me  tell  of  my  one." 

The  character  of  the  Indian  was  a  strange  mix- 
ture of  apparent  contradictions.  He  would  hunt 
and  fish  for  a  season,  and  then  feast  and  make 
merry  night  and  day  while  his  supplies  lasted. 
When  they  were  exhausted,  he  would  gird  up  his 
loins,  and  fast  for  a  period  long  enough  to  end  the 
life  of  a  white  man.     He  had  an  inordinate  love 

132 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

of  finery,  upon  which  the  English  traded  from  the 
first.  He  would  barter  away  a  whole  Winter's 
provisions  of  corn  for  a  scarlet  blanket  or  a  bunch 
of  gay-colored  beads.  Yet  he  was  not  without  a 
natural  shrewdness  which  enlightened  him  when 
he  was  being  cheated.  The  story  runs  that  some 
of  the  early  missionaries  taught  the  savages  that 
their  salvation  depended  on  catching  for  them  shad, 
which  they  sold  to  the  settlers.  In  the  course  of 
time  the  Indians  discovered  the  trick,  and  drove 
out  the  deceivers.  Years  afterward,  another  mis- 
sion w^as  established,  and  the  first  priest  took  as 
his  text,  "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to 
the  waters!"  The  Indians  gathered  round  the 
preacher  when  the  sermon  was  ended,  and  one  of 
the  tribe  said:  "White  man,  you  speak  in  fine 
words  of  the  waters  of  life ;  but  before  we  decide 
on  what  we  have  heard,  we  would  like  to  know 
tuhether  any  shad  swim  in  those  waters  .'  " 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  Indians  appear  to 
better  advantage  than  the  English,  in  the  early 
transactions.  When  Hamor  went  to  visit  King 
Powhatan,  he  was  received  with  royal  courtesy. 
The  chief  sent  one  of  his  attendants  to  bring  what 
food  he  could  find,  though  he  explained  that,  as 
they  were  not  expecting  visitors.,  they  had  not  kept 
anything  ready.  "Presently,"  Hamor  recounts, 
"  the  bread  was  brought  in  two  great  wodden  bowls, 

1 3."^ 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

the  quantity  of  a  bushel  sod  bread,  made  up  round, 
of  the  bygnesse  of  a  tenise-ball,  whereof  we  eat 
some  few. "  After  this  repast,  Hamor  and  his  com- 
rades were  regaled  with  "  a  great  glasse  of  sacke, " 
and  then  were  ushered  into  the  wigwam  appro- 
priated to  them  for  the  night.  English  and  Indian 
ideas  of  comfort  did  not  correspond,  however,  for 
Hamor  complains:  "We  had  not  bin  halfe  an  hour 
in  the  house,  before  the  fleas  began  so  to  torment  us 
that  we  could  not  rest  there,  but  went  forth  and 
under  a  broade  oake,  upon  a  mat.  reposed  ourselves 
that  night." 

Hamor  took  with  him  on  this  visit,  as  an  offer- 
ing to  the  Indian  chief,  five  strings  of  blue  and 
white  beads,  two  pieces  of  copper,  five  wooden 
combs,  ten  fishhooks,  and  a  pair  of  knives.  In 
return  for  these  costly  presents,  this  pious  English 
gentleman  asked  Powhatan,  who  had  already  given 
Pocahontas  to  the  whites,  to  send  them  another 
daughter,  really  as  a  hostage,  but  nominally  as  a 
wife  to  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  the  worthy  governor  of 
Virginia,  regardless  of  the  slight  objection  that 
there  was  already  a  Lady  Dale  in  England.  Poca- 
hontas had  good  reason  for  saying  to  Smith  when 
she  met  him  in  London,  "  Your  countrymen  will 
lie  much." 

To  the  early  settlers  the  savage  seemed  a 
strange  being,  not  more  than  half  human,  who  hap- 

134 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

pened  to  be  in  possession  of  the  land  they  coveted. 
They  thought  they  did  God  service  when  they 
tiung  to  the  Indian  a  Bible  and  a  handful  of  beads, 
in  exchange  for  the  land  which  had  been  his  birth- 
right for  centuries.  They  cheated  and  cajoled 
him  when  he  was  angry,  as  they  might  have 
wheedled  an  angry  tiger ;  yet,  strange  to  say,  they 
were  quite  off  their  guard  when,  at  length,  the 
tiger  made  his  spring,  and  glutted  the  vengeance 
he  had  been  nursing  so  long. 

When  the  news  of  the  Indian  massacre  reached 
England,  it  roused  a  frenzy  of  revenge  equal  in  fury 
to  that  of  the  savages.  The  Virginia  Company 
quite  forgot  that  they  had  set  forth  in  their  charter 
that  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  was  one  of  the 
main  objects  of  the  new  adventure,  or  if  they  re- 
membered it  at  all,  it  was  only  to  apologize  lamely 
for  a  complete  change  of  base.  "  We  condemn  their 
bodies,"  they  wrote  to  the  colonists,  "the  saving 
of  whose  souls  we  have  so  zealously  affected.  Root 
them  out  from  being  any  longer  a  people.  .  .  . 
War  perpetually  without  peace  or  truce :  yet  spare 
the  young  for  servants"  (the  Englishman  even  in 
a  rage  has  an  eye  to  the  main  chance).  "  Starve 
them  by  destroying  their  corn,  or  reaping  it  for 
your  own  use!  Pluck  up  their  weirs!  Obstruct 
their  hunting!  Employ  foreign  enemies  against 
them  at  so  much  a  head!  Keep  a  band  of  your 
135 


The  Colonial    Cavalier. 

own  men  continually  upon  them,  to  be  paid  by  the 
colony,  which  is  to  have  half  of  their  captives  and 
plunder!" 

These  short,  nervous  sentences  fell  like  hammer- 
strokes  on  the  ears  of  the  Englishmen  in  America, 
and  they  found  an  echo  in  their  hearts.  It  is  easy 
for  us  to  characterize  their  revengeful  spirit  as  in- 
consistent and  unchristian.  It  is  easy  to  tolerate 
a  bear  in  a  menagerie,  or  an  Indian  on  a  reserva- 
tion. It  is  quite  another  thing  to  exercise  tolera- 
tion toward  either  in  the  life-and-death  grip  of  a 
frontier  struggle. 

These  men  had  seen  their  homes  go  up  in  flames. 
They  had  heard  the  blood-curdling  war-whoop. 
They  had  counted  the  bloody  scalps  hanging  at 
the  Indian's  belt,  and  marked  on  them  the  hair  of 
those  they  loved.  It  was  idle  to  preach  toleration 
to  them.  Henceforward  for  many  years  it  was 
war  to  the  knife. 

Yet,  both  as  friend  and  foe,  the  Indian  had 
given  the  colonists  many  lessons.  He  had 
taught  them  the  culture  of  maize  and  tobacco, 
he  had  taught  them  to  stalk  the  deer,  to  trap 
the  bear,  and  to  blaze  the  forest  path.  Many  a 
lesson  in  woodcraft  the  settlers  learned  from  him. 
Washington's  shrewdness  in  borrowing  native 
methods  of  warfare,  would,  had  his  advice  been 
taken,  have  saved  Braddock's  army  from  utter  rout 

136 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

in  the  Western  forests.  The  very  enmity  of  the 
Indian  was  a  help  to  the  Colonial  Cavalier,  whose 
ease-loving  temperament  might  easily  have  sunk 
into  sloth  had  it  not  felt  the  spur  of  danger  and  the 
necessity  for  being  on  the  alert.  The  docility  of 
the  negro  was  a  perpetual  temptation  to  the  white 
man  to  the  abuse  of  arbitrary  power,  but  the  resist- 
ance of  the  Indian  was  a  constant  reminder  that 
here  was  a  force  unsubdued  and  unsubduable. 

Of  the  influence  of  the  white  men  on  the  Indian, 
the  less  said  the  better.  They  eradicated  none  of 
his  vices,  and  they  lent  him  many  of  their  own. 
They  found  him  abstinent,  and  they  made  him  a 
guzzler  of  firewater.  They  found  him  hospitable, 
and  they  made  him  suspicious  and  vindictive. 
They  found  him  in  freedom,  the  owner  of  a  great 
country ;  they  robbed  him  of  the  one,  and  crowded 
hira  out  of  the  other. 

An  old  sachem  in  the  eighteenth  century,  meet- 
ing a  surveyor,  said  to  him :  "  The  French  claim 
all  the  land  on  one  side  of  the  Ohio,  the  English 
claim  all  the  land  on  the  other  side.  Now,  where 
does  the  Indian's  land  lie?" 

The  savages  exchanged  their  corn  and  tobacco 
for  the  rum-cask  and  the  firearms  of  civilization, 
and  a  strange  jumble  of  a  new  religion,  whose 
ceremonies  they  grafted  onto  their  own,  with  gro- 
tesque results.  It  is  hard  to  say  whether  they 
137 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

fared  worst  as  the  white  man's  friends  or  foes. 
When  the  English  made  a  treaty  with  the  Chicka- 
homanies,  "a  lustie  and  a  daring  people,"  these 
were  the  terms  offered  them  by  the  whites: 

"First:  They  should  for  ever  bee  called  Eng- 
lishmen and  bee  true  subiects  to  King  James  and 
his  Deputies. 

"Secondly:  Neither  to  kill  nor  detaine  any  of 
our  men,  nor  cattell,  but  bring  them  home. 

"  Thirdly :  To  bee  alwaies  ready  to  furnish  us 
with  three  hundred  men,  against  the  Spaniards  or 
any. 

"  Fourthly :  They  shall  not  enter  our  townes, 
but  send  word  they  are  new  Englishmen. 

"  Fifthly :  That  every  fighting  man,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  harvest  shall  bring  to  our  store  two  bushels 
of  corne  for  tribute,  for  which  they  shall  receive 
so  many  hatchets. 

"Lastly:  The  eight  chiefe  men  should  see  all 
this  performed  or  receive  the  punishment  them- 
selves; for  their  diligence  they  should  have  a  red 
coat,  a  copper  chaine,  and  King  James  his  picture, 
and  be  accounted  his  noblemen." 

This  shameful  bargain  is  recorded  by  the  Eng- 
lish with  evident  self-satisfaction,  and  apparently 
without  a  suspicion  that  they  need  blush  for  the 
transaction.     Yet  when  the  Indian  met  treachery 

I3S 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

with  treachery,  and  fraud  with  guile,  the  civilized 
settlers  were  ablaze  with  indignation  for  no  better 
reason  than  that  the  savages  had  learned  of  them, 
and  bettered  their  instructions. 
139 


HIS   AMUSEMENTS 


^^^  Amufements. 


o 


■it/ 


* 


I'  all  the  amuse- 
ments of    the 
Colonial  Cavalier, 
none  was  so  popular 
as    gambling.       The 
^  law  strove  in  vain  to 

break  it  up.  This  statute  in  the  Colonial  Record, 
tells  its  own  story:  "Against  gaming  at  dice  and 
cardes,  be  it  ordained  by  this  prefent  affembly 
that  the  winners  and  loofers  fhall  forfaicte  ten 
fhillings  a  man,  one  ten  fhillings  thereof  to  go  to 
the  difcoverer,  and  the  reft  to  pious  ufes. "  I  fear 
very  little  was  ever  collected  for  pious  uses.  The 
difficulty  lay  in  the  fact  that,  as  every  one  played, 
there  was  no  one  to  act  the  spy. 

This  passion  for  gaming  in  the  colonies  was  only 
a  reflection  of  the  craze  in  England.  For  more 
than  a  century  after  the  return  of  Charles  the  Sec- 
ond, the  rattle  of  the  dice-box,  and  the  shuffling 
of  cards  were  the  most  familiar  sounds  in  every 
London  chocolate-house.  Young  sinners  and  old 
spent  their  fortunes,  and  misspent  their  lives,  play- 
ing for  money  at  Brooke's  or  Boodle's.  When  a 
man  fell    dead   at   the  door   of   White's,  he   was 

143 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

dragged  into  the  hall  amid  bets  as  to  whether  he 
were  dead  or  alive,  and  the  surgeon's  aid  was  vio- 
lently opposed,  on  the  ground  of  unfairness  to  those 
betting  on  the  side  of  death.  The  Duke  of  St. 
Albans,  at  eighty,  too  blind  to  see  the  cards,  went 
regularly  to  a  gambling-house  with  an  attendant. 
Lady  Castlemaine  lost  twenty-five  thousand  pounds 
in  one  night's  play.  General  Braddock's  sister, 
having  gamed  away  her  fortune  at  Bath,  fin- 
ished the  comedy  by  hanging  herself.  When  her 
affectionate  brother  heard  the  news,  he  remarked 
jocularly,  "  Poor  Fanny !  I  always  thought  she 
would  play  till  she  was  forced  to  tuck  herself 
up." 

I  offer  all  this  testimony  to  show  that  our  Co- 
lonial Cavalier  was  only  the  child  of  his  age,  when 
he  too  shook  the  dice,  and  shuffled  the  cards.  Being 
short  of  cash,  his  bets  were  generally  made  in  to- 
bacco, or,  failing  that,  in  flesh  and  blood.  Many 
a  slave  found  a  new  master  in  the  morning,  be- 
cause his  old  master  had  been  unlucky  at  play  the 
night  before. 

In  a  community  so  absorbed  in  the  excitement  of 
hazard,  the  lottery  of  course  took  deep  hold.  The 
first  plantation  in  America  was  aided  by  a  grand 
"standing  lottery,"  with  along  list  of  "welcomes, 
prises  and  rewards,"  amounting  to  more  than  ten 
thousand  crowns.  The  declaration  sets  forth  that 
144 


The  Colonial   CawiHcr. 

"all  prises,  welcomes  and  rewards  drawne  wher- 
ever they  dwell,  shall  of  the  treasurer  have  present 
pay,  and  whosoever  under  one  name  or  poesie  pay- 
eth  three  pound  in  ready  money,  shall  receive  six 
shillings  and  eight  pence,  or  a  silver  spoone  of  that 
value  at  his  choice." 

"  The  money  for  the  Adventurers  is  to  be  paid 
to  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  Knight,  and  Treasurer  for 
Virginia,  or  such  officers  as  he  shall  appoint  in  City 
or  Country,  under  the  common  seale  of  the  com- 
pany for  the  receit  thereof." 

The  example  thus  set,  was  followed  whenever 
the  colonies  felt  a  pressure  for  money.  In  Vir- 
ginia a  lottery  was  established  to  meet  the  expenses 
of  the  French  and  Indian  War — the  drawing  di- 
rected to  be  "  in  the  Burgesses'  Room  of  the  Capi- 
tal at  Williamsburgh  at  ten  in  the  morning. 
Prizes  current  money  from  ^5  to  ;^2ooo.  The 
lucky  numbers  to  be  published  in  the  Gazette. " 

In  Maryland,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  a 
"  Scheme  of  Lottery  is  humbly  proposed  to  the 
Public  for  Raising  the  sum  of  510  pounds,  current 
money,  to  be  applied  towards  completeing  the 
Market-House  in  Baltimore-Town  in  Baltimore 
Co.,  buying  two  Fire-Engines  and  a  parcel  of 
Leather-Buckets  for  the  use  of  the  said  Town, 
enlarging  the  present  Public  Wharf  and  Building 
a  new  one. " 

145 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

If  gambling  was  a  favorite  pastime  and  the 
lottery  a  popular  excitement,  the  Cavalier  was  not 
a  stranger  to  manlier  sports.  Of  a  brave  and  ar- 
dent temper,  and  a  fine  physique,  he  found  at  once 
his  work  and  play  in  the  hardy  amusements  of  the 
chase.  He  had  learned  from  the  Indian  to  stalk  the 
deer,  walking  stealthily  behind  his  horse  till  a 
good  chance  offered  to  shoot  close  at  hand,  and  lay 
the  unsuspecting  deer  at  his  feet.  Sometimes,  in 
the  bright  October  weather,  the  air  would  be  blue 
with  the  smoke  of  the  fires  built  to  start  the  game. 
Now,  in  his  heavy  leather  boots,  he  would  start 
afoot  after  wild  hare,  or  by  the  light  of  the  moon, 
w^ith  a  band  of  servants  and  dogs,  he  would  hunt  the 
'possum  and  the  coon.  This  habit  of  hunting  was 
so  universal  that  the  Colonial  Cavalier  well  merited 
the  sarcasm  of  The  Spectator,  which  described  the 
English  country  gentleman  as  lying  under  the 
curse  pronounced  in  the  words  of  Goliath,  "  I  will 
give  thee  to  the  fowls  of  the  air  and  to  the  beasts  of 
the  field. "  Hunting  as  a  sport  may  not  be  spiritu- 
alizing, but  it  certainly  is  not  brutalizing,  and  as 
much  cannot  be  said  for  all  the  sports  of  that  day, 
in  the  Southern  colonies  of  America. 

The  cock-fight  and  the  gouging-match  never 
lacked  as  eager  a  throng  of  spectators,  as  gathers 
to-day  at  a  football  game ;  yet  both  were  brutal 
and  disgusting.     They  roused  the  amazement  of 

146 


The   Colonial   Cavalier. 

every  foreigner,  that  such  things  should  be  toler- 
ated in  a  civilized  country.  The  gouging-match 
was  simply  a  fight  of  the  lowest  order.  Not  only 
were  fists  freely  used,  but  the  test  of  success  was  the 
ability  of  the  stronger  bully  to  gouge  out  the  eye 
of  his  adversary.  The  under  man  could  only  save 
his  sight  by  humiliating  himself  to  cry  out,  "  Kings 
Cruse!"  or  "  Enough  !" 

Anburey,  who  witnessed  several  of  these  matches, 
says :  "I  have  seen  a  fellow,  reckoned  a  great  adept 
in  gouging,  who  constantly  kept  the  nails  of  both 
his  thumb  and  second  finger  long  and  pointed; 
nay,  to  prevent  their  breaking  or  splitting,  he 
hardened  them  every  evening  in  a  candle." 

So  familiar  was  this  brutal  practice  that  it  sup- 
plied a  Southern  orator  in  after  years  with  a 
rhetorical  climax  when,  inciting  his  countrynjen 
to  make  war  on  the  mercantile  interests  of  Great 
Britain,  he  exclaimed:  "Commerce  is  the  apple  of 
England's  eye.     There  let  us  gouge  her!" 

The  cock-fight  was  scarcely  less  degrading  than 
the  gouging-match.  When  a  fight  was  an- 
nounced, the  news  spread  like  lightning,  and  from 
all  over  the  country  people  came  thronging,  some 
bringing  cocks  to  be  entered  in  the  match,  but  all 
with  money  or  tobacco  to  bet  on  the  result.  The 
scene  was  one  of  wild  excitement.  Men  and  boys 
cheered  on  their  favorites,  and  watched  with  de- 

147 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

light,  while  the  furious  cocks  thrust  at  each  other 
with  their  long  spurs  of  cruel  steel. 

It  is  pleasant  to  turn  away  from  such  scenes  and 
sports  as  these,  to  read  of  the  Knights  of  the  Golden 
Horseshoe  riding  up  into  the  wild  fastnesses  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  Mountains  with  Governor  Spotswood. 
It  was  a  right  knightly  expedition,  and  one  of  the 
most  picturesque  in  American  history.  They 
wound  through  the  forest,  and  forded  the  rivers, 
and  climbed  rocky  mountains,  and  took  possession 
of  peak  after  peak  in  the  name  of  "  His  Majesty 
George  the  First."  Their  horses  were  shod  with 
iron,  which  was  not  usual  in  those  days,  and  on 
their  return,  Governor  Spotswood  presented  each 
of  the  Cavaliers  as  a  memento  of  the  journey,  with 
a  tiny  gold  horse-shoe,  set  with  jewels,  and  bearing 
the  legend,  '''Sic  jurat  transccndere  mo?ites."  The 
thrifty  old  king  disapproved  of  this  extravagance, 
and  left  the  Governor  to  pay  for  the  mementoes  out 
of  his  own  pocket. 

Riding  on  horseback  was  the  chief  recreation, 
as  well  as  the  chief  mode  of  getting  about,  at  the 
South.  As  the  planters  grew  richer,  they  de- 
lighted to  own  fine  horses  and  outfits.  Washing- 
ton's letter-book  contains  an  order  sent  to  London 
for  elaborate  equipments:  "  i  man's  riding  saddle, 
hogskin  seat,  large  plated  stirrups,  double-reined 
bridle  and  Pelham  bit  plated.     A  very  neat  and 

148 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

fashionable  Newmarket  saddle-cloth.  A  large 
and  best  portmanteau,  saddle,  bridle  and  pillion, 
cloak-bag,  and  surcingle.  A  riding-frock  of  a 
handsome  drab  -  coloured  broadcloth  with  plain 
double  gilt  buttons.  A  riding  waistcoat  of  super- 
fane  scarlet  cloth  and  gold  lace,  with  buttons  like 
those  of  the  coat.  A  blue  surtout  coat.  A  neat 
switch  whip,  silver  cap.  Black  velvet  cap  for 
servant. " 

Washington,  as  methodical  in  private  affairs  as 
in  public,  kept  in  his  household  books,  a  register 
of  the  names  and  ages  of  his  horses  and  his  dogs. 
Here  we  may  read  the  entire  family  history  of 
AJax  and  B/ucskin,  Valiant  and  Afagnolia,  or  of  the 
foxhounds  Vulcan,  Singer,  Ringwood,  Music,  and 
True  Love. 

There  was  a  peculiar  intimacy  between  the  fox- 
hounds and  their  master,  for  they  were  associated 
with  some  of  the  happiest  hours  of  his  life,  and 
when  they  came  in  from  a  field-day,  torn  by  the 
briars  through  which  they  had  struggled  or  limp- 
ing from  thorns  in  the  foot,  they  were  tenderly 
cared  for,  bandaged,  and  looked  after.  No  amuse- 
ment so  delighted  Washington  as  riding  across 
country  with  Lord  Fairfax  in  one  of  the  hunts  which 
that  gentleman  and  sportsman  was  so  fond  of  organ- 
izing at  Greenaway  Court.  On  a  brisk  yet  soft 
autumn  morning,  through  the  blue  Virginia  haze, 
149 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

the  gentry  for  miles  around  came  to  the  "meet." 
The  huntsmen  might  be  heard  urging  on  the  dogs 
with  cries  of  "Yoicks!  Yoicks!  Have  at  him! 
Push  him  up !  "  till  the  fox,  which  had  doubled  on 
its  tracks,  round  and  round  the  thick  covert,  at 
length  broke  away,  and  the  cry  was  raised  of 
"  Tally-ho !  Gone  away !  "  The  huntsman  blew  his 
horn,  the  whipper-in  cracked  his  whip,  the  hounds 
were  in  full  cry,  and  the  entire  field  of  scarlet- 
coated  riders  broke  in,  in  a  mad  gallop,  through 
brush  and  briar.  A  strong  fox  will  "  live"  before 
hounds  on  an  average  of  an  hour,  but  sometimes 
the  hunt  lasted  all  day,  and  covered  thirty  miles  or 
more.  The  lessons  of  endurance,  of  woodcraft,  and 
of  hardy  strength,  which  the  Virginia  gentlemen 
learned  in  these  hunts,  stood  them  in  good  stead 
in  the  life-and-death  struggle  on  sterner  fields. 

A  great  lover  of  animals  was  Charles  Lee,  who 
was  always  surrounded  by  a  troop  of  dogs,  and  who 
made  himself  somewhat  unwelcome  as  a  visitor, 
by  insisting  on  bringing  them  into  the  house  with 
him  wherever  he  went.  "  I  must  have  some  object 
to  embrace,"  he  once  wrote  to  a  friend.  "When 
I  can  be  convinced  that  men  are  as  worthy  objects 
as  dogs,  I  shall  transfer  my  benevolence,  and  be- 
come as  staunch  a  philanthropist  as  the  canting 
Addison  affected  to  be." 

Apparently  he  never  changed  his  mind,  but  died 
150 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

still  devoted  to  his  dogs  and  his  horses.  Men  who 
loved  horses,  of  course  loved  horse-racing  as  well. 
The  Carolina  Jockey  Club  was  a  famous  institu- 
tion. Its  annual  races  drew  crowds  from  the 
neighboring  country,  and  the  population  gave 
itself  up  to  several  days'  festivity,  ending  in  a 
ball.  In  Virginia,  the  sport  was  no  less  popular. 
The  Gazette  of  October,  1737,  announces  that  "On 
St.  Andrew's  Day,  there  are  to  be  horse-races  and 
several  other  Diversions  for  the  entertainment  of 
the  Gentlemen  and  Ladies  at  the  Old  Field." 
The  programme  of  this  entertainment  recalls  the 
days  of  Merrie  England.  Besides  the  race  of 
twenty  horses  for  a  prize  of  five  pounds,  the  ad- 
vertisement gives  notice : 

"  That  a  hat  of  the  value  of  20s.  be  cudgelled  for, 
and  that  after  the  first  challenge  be  made,  the 
Drums  are  to  beat  every  quarter  of  an  hour  for  3 
challenges  round  the  Ring,  and  none  to  play  with 
their  left  hand. 

"That  a  violin  be  played  for  by  20  Fiddles,  no 
person  to  have  the  liberty  of  playing  unless  he 
bring  his  fiddle  with  him.  After  the  prize  is  won, 
they  are  all  to  play  together,  and  each  a  different 
tune,  and  to  be  treated  by  the  company. 

"  That  1 2  Boys  of  1 2  years  of  age  do  run  1 1 2  yds, 
for  a  hat  of  the  cost  of  12  shillings. 

"That  a  flag  be  flying  on  said  Day.  30  feet  high. 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

"  That  a  handsome  entertainment  be  provided 
for  the  subscribers  and  their  wives;  and  such  of 
them  as  are  not  so  happy  as  to  have  wives,  may 
treat  any  other  lady. 

"  That  drums,  trumpets  and  hautboys  be  pro- 
vided to  play  at  said  entertainment. 

"  That  after  dinner  the  Royal  Health,  His  Honor 
the  Governor's,  etc.,  are  to  be  drunk. 

"  That  a  Quire  of  Ballads  be  sung  for,  by  a  num- 
ber of  songsters,  all  of  them  to  have  liquor  suffi- 
cient to  clear  their  wind-pipes. 

"  That  a  pair  of  silver  buckles  be  wrestled  for, 
by  a  number  of  brisk  young  men. 

"  That  a  pair  of  handsome  shoes  be  danced  for. 

"  That  a  pair  of  handsome  silk  stockings,  of  one 
pistole  value,  be  given  to  the  handsomest  young 
country  maid  that  appears  in  the  field — with  many 
other  whimsical  and  comical  diversions  too  numer- 
ous to  mention. 

"  And  as  this  mirth  is  designed  to  be  purely  in- 
nocent and  void  of  offense,  all  persons  resorting 
there  are  desired  to  behave  themselves  with  de- 
cency and  sobriety." 

There  is  a  delightful  heartiness  and  simplicity 
about  all  this  racing,  and  chasing,  and  dancing,  and 
jigging,  and  fiddling.  Folks  had  not  learned  to 
take  their  pleasure  sadly.  They  still  found  clowns 
funny,  and  shouted  with  laughter  over  the  efforts 

152 


The  Colonial   Ca\alier. 

to  climb  greased  poles  and  catch  slippery  pigs, 
and,  above  all,  they  delighted  in  the  barbecue.  At 
these  great  open-air  feasts  animals  were  roasted 
whole  over  enormous  fires.  Huge  bowls  of  punch 
circled  round  the  long  tables  spread  under  the 
trees,  and  when  the  feast  was  done  the  negroes 
gathered  up  the  fragments  and  made  merry,  late 
into  the  night. 

All  the  English  holidays  were  observed  in  the 
Cavalier  Colonies  in  addition  to  some  local  festi- 
vals. Eddis  writes  from  Annapolis  in  old  colony 
days:  "Besides  our  regular  assemblies,  every 
mark  of  attention  is  paid  to  the  patron  saint  of 
each  parent  dominion;  and  St.  George,  St.  An- 
drew, St.  Patrick,  and  St.  David  are  celebrated  with 
every  partial  mark  of  national  attachment.  Gen- 
eral invitations  are  given,  and  the  appearance  is 
always  numerous  and  splendid.  The  Americans 
on  this  part  of  the  continent  have  likewise  a  saint, 
whose  history,  like  those  of  the  above  venerable 
characters,  is  lost  in  sable  uncertainty.  The  first 
of  May  is,  however,  set  apart  to  the  memory  of 
Saint  Tamina  (Tammany) ;  on  which  occasion  the 
natives  wear  a  piece  of  a  buck's  tail  in  their  hats, 
or  in  some  conspicuous  situation.  During  the 
course  of  the  evening,  and  generally  in  the  midst 
of  a  dance,  the  company  are  interrupted  by  the 
sudden  intrusion  of  a  number  of  persons  habited 
153 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

like  Indians,  who  rush  violently  into  the  room, 
singing  the  war-song,  giving  the  whoop,  and  danc- 
ing in  the  stj'le  of  those  people;  after  which  cere- 
mony, a  collection  is  made,  and  they  retire,  well 
satisfied  with  their  reception  and  entertainment." 

In  addition  to  such  festivities  as  these,  the  King's 
birthnight  was  celebrated  with  illuminations  and 
joy-fires,  and  Christmas  in  Maryland  and  Virginia 
recalled  the  gayety  of  the  dear  old  home  festival. 
The  halls  were  filled  with  holly  and  mistletoe, 
which  refuse  to  grow  in  the  chill  New  Eng- 
land air,  but  may  be  gathered  in  the  woods  of 
Virginia  as  freely  as  in  England;  the  yule  log 
was  kindled  on  the  hospitable  hearth,  and  the 
evening  ended  with  a  dance. 

It  was  a  dancing  age.  None  were  too  old  or  too 
dignified  to  join  in  the  pastime.  We  have  it  on 
the  authority  of  General  Greene  that  on  one  occa- 
sion Washington  danced  for  three  hours  without 
once  sitting  down.  Patrick  Henry  would  close  the 
doors  of  his  ofifice  to  betake  himself  to  dancing  or 
fiddling,  and  Jefferson  dearly  loved  to  rosin  his 
bow  for  a  merry  jig.  The  story  is  told  of  him 
that  once,  when  away  from  home,  he  received 
news  of  the  burning  of  his  father's  house.  "  Did 
you  save  any  of  my  books?"  he  asked  of  the  slave 
who  brought  him  the  tidings.  "No,  Massa, " 
answered  the  negro,  "but  we  saved  the  fiddle!" 

154 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

At  the  entertainments  in  the  "  Palace"  at  Wil- 
liamsburg, the  Governor  himself  opened  the  ball, 
with  the  most  distinguished  lady  present,  in  the 
stately  figures  of  the  minuet.  Afterward  young 
and  old  joined  in  the  livelier  motions  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Red.  This  dance,  in  spite  of  its  name,  did 
not  spring  from  Virginia  soil,  but  was  adopted 
from  an  old  English  dance  known  as  "  The  Hemp- 
Dressers,"  whose  figures  represent  the  process  of 
weaving,  as  its  couples  shoot  from  side  to  side,  then 
over  and  under,  like  a  shuttle,  and  finally  unite, 
as  the  threads  tighten  and  draw  the  cloth  to- 
gether. 

The  Governor's  palace  did  not  absorb  all  the 
gayety  of  Williamsburg.  Who  has  not  heard  of 
the  Raleigh  Tavern,  with  its  leaden  bust  of  Sir 
Walter,  and  its  crowning  glory  of  "  The  Apollo 
Room,"  named  doubtless  for  that  famous  "  Apollo 
Room"  in  the  "Devil's  Tavern,"  Fleet  vStreet, 
where  Shakespeare  and  Jonson  held  their  bouts  of 
wit  and  wine? 

If  we  could  have  crept  up  to  the  Raleigh  Tavern 
some  night,  early  in  the  last  half  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, and  peeped  through  the  small-paned  windows 
of  "  the  Apollo,"  we  might  have  seen  a  party  of  gay 
collegians  making  merry  with  their  sweethearts 
and  friends.  This  tall  youth,  with  sandy  hair  and 
gray  eyes,  is  Tom  Jefferson,  who  is  offering  his 
155 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

awkward  homage  at  the  shrine  of  Miss  'Becca  Bur- 
well.  Near  them  is  Jefferson's  most  intimate 
friend,  Jack  Page,  dancing  with  his  Nancy.  Yon- 
der, near  the  wide  fireplace,  between  Sukey  Potter 
and  Betsy  Moore,  stands  Ben  Harrison,  a  mere  boy 
still,  though  soon  to  enter  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
and  over  there  in  the  corner,  gravely  surveying  the 
dancers,  is  the  uniformed  figure  of  the  young  sol- 
dier, George  Washington.  Should  we  have  read 
in  these  youthful  faces  a  promise  of  the  parts  they 
were  destined  to  play  on  the  world's  stage?  Prob- 
ably no  more  than  we  should  have  foreseen  this 
gay  ballroom  turned  into  the  hall  of  a  political 
assembly,  where  the  first  birth-cry  of  American 
freedom  is  heard. 

We  can  get  whatever  impression  we  choose  of 
Williamsburg  and  its  society  by  selecting  our 
authority  judiciously.  Burnaby,  who  visited  it  in 
1759,  describes  it  as  a  pleasant  little  town,  with 
wooden  houses  straggling  along  unpaved  streets ; 
while  Hugh  Jones  writes,  thirty  years  earlier,  that 
many  good  families  live  here  "  who  dress  after  the 
same  modes  and  behave  themselves  exactly  as  the 
Gentry  in  London."  "  Most  families  of  any  note," 
he  adds,  "have  a  coach,  chariot,  Berlin  or  chaise." 

The  city,  so  he  says,  is  well  stocked  with  rich 
stores,  and  "at  the  Governor's  House  upon  Birth- 
nights  and  at  Balls  and  Assemblies,  I  have  seen  as 
156 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

fine  an  appearance,  as  good  diversion,  and  as  splen- 
did entertainments  in  Governor  Spotswood's  time 
as  I  have  seen  anywhere." 

When  Governor  Botetourt  (pronounced  after  the 
English  fashion,  Bottatot)  came  over  to  Virginia, 
he  took  the  oath  of  office  here  at  Williamsburg, 
and  rode  in  state  in  a  great  coach  drawn  by  six 
milk-white  horses.  After  the  oath  had  been  ad- 
ministered, a  grand  supper  was  given  in  his  honor 
at  the  Raleigh  Tavern.  The  Gazette  gives  a  full 
account  of  the  affair.  An  ode  was  sung,  begin- 
ning : 

"  He  comes  !  His  Excellency  comes 

To  cheer  Virginia's  plains. 
Fill  your  brisk  bowls,  ye  loyal  sons, 

And  sing  your  loftiest  strains  ! 
Be  this  your  glory,  this  your  boast, 
Lord  Botetourt's  the  favorite  toast. 

Triumphant  wreaths  entwine ! 
Fill  your  bumpers  swiftly  round, 
And  make  your  spacious  rooms  resound 

With  music,  joy  and  wine  !" 

The  air  being  ended,  the  recitative  took  up  the 
strain  of  effusive  compliment: 

"Search  every  garden,  strip  the  shrubby  bowers. 
And  strew  his  path  with  sweet  autumnal  flowers ! 
Ye  virgins,  haste  ;  prepare  the  fragrant  rose 
And  with  triumphant  laurels  crown  his  brows !" 
157 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

The  virgins  thus  called  forth,  appeared  from  their 
"shrubb)^  bowers,"  bearing  roses  and  laurel,  and 
singing,  as  they  advanced  toward  the  hero  of  the 
evening : 

"See,  we've  stripped  each  flowery  bed — 
Here's  laurels  for  his  lordly  head, 
And  while  Virginia  is  his  care, 
May  he  protect  the  virtuous  fair  !" 

As  I  looked  on  Lord  Botetourt's  statue,  and 
marked  its  moss-covered  figure  and  its  fatuously 
smiling  face,  robbed  of  its  nose  by  the  stone  of 
contempt,  I  remembered  this  festival,  and  mused 
on  the  vicissitudes  of  fame. 

In  the  year  1752  a  new  delight  was  opened  to 
the  provincials.  Hallam's  company  of  comedians 
came  over  in  The  Charming  Sally  to  act  for 
them.  A  playbill  of  that  year  announces  that 
"  at  the  new  theatre  in  Annapolis  by  the  company 
of  comedians,  on  Monday  next,  being  the  sixth  of 
this  instant  July,  will  be  performed  The  Busy  Body, 
likewise  a  farce  called  The  Lying  Valet.  To  begin 
precisely  at  7  o'clock.  Tickets  to  be  had  at  the 
printing-office.  No  persons  to  be  admitted  behind 
the  scenes.  Box  seats  los.,  pit  7s.  6d,  gallery  5s." 
A  later  bill  announces  that  "  children  in  laps  will 
not  be  admitted." 

The  favorite  plays  given  by  Hallam's  Company 
seem  to  have  been — 

158 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

"The  Suspicious  Husband,"  "Othello,"  "The 
Mock  Doctor,"  "Romeo  and  Juliet,"  "The  Devil 
To  Pay,"  "A  Bold  Stroke  for  a  Wife,"  and  "Miss 
In  Her  Teens;  or,  A  Medley  of  Lovers." 

Our  squeamish  age  would  find  much  to  shock, 
and  perhaps  little  to  amuse,  in  many  of  those  old 
plays.  Congreve's  shameless  muse  set  the  pace, 
and  the  Nell  Gwynns  of  the  stage  kept  it.  If  we 
wonder  that  our  ancestors  could  listen  and  look, 
will  not  our  descendants  w^onder  equally  at  us? 

Before  Hallam  and  his  company  came  over  to 
set  up  a  professional  standard,  amateur  theatricals 
were  the  rage.  The  Virginia  Gazette  in  1736  an- 
nounces a  performance  of  "  The  Beaux'  Straiage?nhy 
the  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  this  county,"  and  also 
that  the  students  of  the  college  are  to  give  T/ie 
Tragedy  of  Cato  at  the  theatre.  Somehow,  Addi- 
son's tragedies  seem  further  removed  from  our 
sympathies  than  Congreve's  comedies,  and  we 
turn  wnth  relief  to  a  form  of  amusement  always 
in  fashion  and  forever  modern,  the  time-honored 
entertainment  of  feasting. 

In  1744,  a  grand  dinner  was  given  by  Governor 
Gooch  to  visiting  statesmen  at  Annapolis.  Wil- 
liam Black,  who  was  present,  records  m  his  journal 
that  "  Punch  was  served  before  dinner,  which  was 
sumptuous,  with  wines  in  great  abundance,  fol- 
lowed   by   strawberries    and    ice-cream,    a   great 

159 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

rarity."  These  public  banquets  were  momentous 
affairs,  demanding  a  sound  digestion  and  a  steady- 
head  in  those  guests  who  wished  to  live  to  dine 
another  day.  Chastellux  gives  a  vivid  account  of 
their  customs.  "The  dinner,"  he  writes,  "is 
served  in  the  American  or,  if  you  will,  in  the 
English  fashion,  consisting  of  two  courses, 
one  comprehending  the  entrees,  the  roast  meat 
and  the  warm  side-dishes;  the  other,  the  sweet 
pastry  and  confectionery.  When  this  is  removed, 
the  cloth  is  taken  off,  and  apples,  nuts,  and  chest- 
nuts are  served.  It  is  then  that  healths  are  drunk. " 
This  custom  of  drinking  healths,  he  finds  pleasant 
enough,  inasmuch  as  it  serves  to  stimulate  and 
prolong  conversation.  But  he  says,  "  I  find  it  an 
absurd  and  truly  barbarous  practice,  the  first  time 
you  drink,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  dinner,  to 
call  out  successively  to  each  individual,  to  let  him 
know  you  drink  his  health.  The  actor  in  this 
ridiculous  comedy  is  sometimes  ready  to  die  with 
thirst,  whilst  he  is  obliged  to  inquire  the  names,  or 
catch  the  eyes,  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  persons. " 

The  woes  of  the  diner  and  winer  do  not,  it 
seems,  end  with  this  general  call,  for  he  is  con- 
stantly called,  and  having  his  sleeve  pulled,  to  at- 
tract his  attention,  now  this  way,  now  that.  "  These 
general  and  partial  attacks  end  m  downright  duels. 
They  call  to  you  from  one  end  of  the  table  to  the 

i6o 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

other:  'Sir,  will  you  permit  me  to  drink  a  glass  of 
wine  with  you?'  " 

Allowing-  for  some  exaggeration  on  the  part  of 
the  lively  Frenchman,  it  is  easy  to  see  what  quan- 
tities of  Madeira  and  "  Phyall"  must  have  been 
drunk  in  those  tournaments  of  courtesy,  and  I  do 
not  wonder  to  read  in  the  journal  of  a  young  wom- 
an of  the  eighteenth  century :  "  The  gentlemen 
are  returned  from  dinner.      Both  tipsy!" 

"The  Tuesday  Club,"  of  Maryland,  had  many  a 
jovial  supper  together.  Their  toasts  always  began 
with  "The  Ladies,"  followed  by  "The  King's 
Majesty,"  and  after  that  "The  Deluge."  I  find  a 
suggestive  regulation  made  by  this  club,  that  each 
member  should  bring  his  own  sand-box,  "  to  save 
the  carpet." 

Parson  Bacon  sanctified  these  convivial  meet- 
ings by  his  presence  and  was,  by  all  accounts,  the 
ringleader  of  the  boisterous  revels.  Jonathan 
Boucher,  another  clergyman,  but  of  a  very  differ- 
ent type,  was  a  great  clubman  too.  He  was  one 
of  the  leading  spirits  of  "The  Hommony  Club," 
whose  avowed  object  was  "  to  promote  innocent 
mirth  and  ingenious  humor." 

The  days  of  women's  clubs  were  still  in  the  far 
future,  and  the  chief  excitement  of  the  ladies  was 
an  occasional  ball.  The  Maryland  assemblies  be- 
gan at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  were  sup- 
i6i 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

posed  to  end  at  ten,  though  the  young  folks  often 
coaxed  and  cajoled  the  authorities  into  later  hours. 
Card  parties  were  part  of  the  entertainment,  and 
whist  was  enlivened  by  playing  for  money.  The 
supper  was  often  furnished  from  the  ladies' 
kitchens  and  the  gentlemen's  gamebags,  and  was 
a  tempting  one.  The  costumes  were  rich  and 
imposing.  A  witness  of  one  of  these  Maryland 
balls  writes :  "  The  gentlemen,  dressed  in  short 
breeches,  wore  handsome  knee-buckles,  silk  stock- 
ings, buckled  pumps,  etc.  The  ladies  wore — God 
knows  what;  I  don't!" 

Dancing  and  music  were  the  chief  branches 
of  the  eighteenth-century  maiden's  education. 
I  can  fancy,  as  I  read  that  "  Patsy  Custis  and 
Milly  Posey  are  gone  to  Colonel  Mason's  to  the 
dancing-school,"  how  they  held  up  their  full  petti- 
coats, and  pointed  out  the  toes  of  their  red-heeled 
shoes,  and  dreamed  of  future  conquests,  although 
for  one  of  them  the  tomb  was  already  preparing 
its  chill  embrace. 

For  women,  life  in  town  was  pleasant  enough 
with  its  tea-drinkings,  its  afternoon  visits,  and  its 
evening  assemblies,  but  on  the  plantations  far 
from  neighbors  time  must  often  have  hung  heavy 
on  their  hands.  Yet  even  there,  pleasures  could 
be  found,  or  made.  When  evening  shut  down  over 
the  lonely  manor-houses  along  the  Chesapeake,  the 

162 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 


myrtleberry  candles   were    lighted,    the   slender 
legged  mahogany  tables  drawn  out,  and  the  Col- 
onial dames  seated  themselves  to   an  evening  of 
cards.     Small  stakes  were  played 
for   to   heighten    the    interest    of 
"Triumph,    Ruff     and     Honors," 
"Gleke,"    or     "Quadrille;"     and 
when  these  lost  their  charm,  there 
was  the  spinet  to  turn  to. 


'•r.' 


«4 


In  those  primitive  days  people  still  loved  melody. 
"A  little  music"  was  called  for  with  enthusiasm, 
and  given  without  hesitation.  There  was  no 
scientific  criticism  to  be  feared  when  the  young 
men  and  maidens  "raised  a  tune."  Their  list  of 
103 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

songs  was  not  long ;  but  familiarity  lent  a  deeper 
charm  than  novelty.  "  Gaze  not  on  Swans"  was  a 
favorite  in  the  seventeenth  century.  "  Push  about 
the  Brisk  Bowl,"  while  well  enough  at  the  hunt 
supper  table,  was  banished  from  the  drawing- 
room  in  favor  of  "Beauty,  Retire!"  a  song  begin- 
ning— 

"  Beauty,  retire  !  thou  dost  my  pitty  move  ; 
Believe  my  pitty  and  then  trust  my  love. " 

The  writer  does  not  make  it  quite  clear  why  he 
wishes  Beauty  to  retire,  nor  why  she  moves  his 
pity.  In  fact,  the  case  seems  quite  reversed  in 
the  last  stanza: 

"With  niew  and  painfulle  arts 
Of  studied  warr  I  breake  the  hearts 
Of  half  the  world  ;  and  shee  breakes  mine  ; 
And  shee,  and  shee,  and  shec  breakes  mine  !" 

Through  the  lapse  of  more  than  one  century,  we 
hear  the  echo  of  those  young  voices,  rising  and 
falling  in  the  air  and  counter  of  the  quaint  old 
melodies. 

Oh,  those  shadowy  corners  of  candle-lighted 
rooms,  those  spinets,  those  duos  and  trios,  those 
ruffled  squires  and  brocaded  dames! — where  are 
they  now? 

164 


HIS   MAN-SERVANTS  AND   HIS 
MAID-SERVANTS 


Man-ServantSrfAx  «>../  his 
<^   Maid       M. 
r  Servants. 


Jove  fixed  it  certain 
Thnt  whatcucr  dai) 
MrtAej  a  manjlat/e. 
Tn//ts  half  /;/V  vj-jttb  a.voa£  ■ 


ANEW  ENGLAND  farm- 
house and  a  Southern  planta- 
tion:— What  a  contrast  the  two  presented  in 
colonial  days!  In  the  homes  of  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  the  notable  housewife  was  up 
before  light,  breaking  the  ice  over  the  water,  of 
a  winter  morning,  preparing  with  her  own  hands 
the  savory  sausages  and  buckwheat  cakes  for  the 
men's  breakfast,  and  setting  the  house  in  order. 
To  her  it  fell  to  take  charge  of  the  wool  from  the 
back  of  the  sheep  till  it  reached  the  back  of  her  boy ; 
carding,  spinning,  weaving,  dyeing  the  wool,  cut- 
ting the  cloth,  and  sewing  the  seams, scouring  floors 
and  washing  dishes ;  all  these  duties  fell  to  the  share 
of  the  Puritan  Priscillas.  Yet,  when  evening  fell, 
when  the  dishes  were  shelved  on  the  dresser,  these 

167 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

busy  housewives,  in  their  sanded  kitchens,  with  the 
firelight  reflected  from  their  shining  tins,  were  not 
to  be  pitied,  even  in  comparison  with  their  more 
luxuriously  attended  sisters  in  Maryland  or 
Virginia. 

Life  at  the  South  was  at  once  grander  and 
shabbier,  than  in  New  England.  The  Southerner's 
ease-loving  nature  had  the  power  to  ignore  detail ; 
and  it  is  attention  to  detail  which  brings  well-being 
to  the  household  and  wrinkles  to  the  housekeeper. 
A  thousand  slaves  could  not  take  the  place  of  one 
woman  of  "faculty."  In  fact,  the  more  shiftless, 
lazy  negroes  there  were,  the  less  order  and  tidiness 
prevailed.  But  order  and  tidiness  were  not  indis- 
pensable to  happiness  there  and  then,  and  the  sum 
of  human  enjoyment  was  large  on  those  old  plan- 
tations, in  spite  of  shiftlessness  and  slavery.  Of 
that  restless  ambition  which  corrodes  modern  life, 
men  had  little,  women  had  none,  and  servants  less 
than  none.  The  negro  was  a  true  child  of  the 
tropics,  and  with  food  and  sunshine  enough,  was 
merry  as  the  day  is  long. 

A  healthy  negro,  on  a  prosperous  estate,  under 
the  charge  of  a  gentleman,  not  under  the  bane  of  an 
overseer,  came  perhaps  as  near  to  animal  cheerful- 
ness as  mortal  often  does.  The  master  enjoyed 
that  serenity  and  leisure  which  freedom  from 
manual  labor  gives;  his  children  grew  up,  each 


The  Colonial   Ca\alier. 

with  a  personal  retainer  attached  to  himself  with 
the  old  feudal  loyalty ;  the  lady  of  the  house  was 
again  the  old  Saxon  hlacfdi::;c,  who  gave  out  the 
bread  to  the  tribe  of  servants  day  by  day.  Yet 
with  all  the  brightness  which  can  be  thrown  into 
the  picture,  slavery  was  a  curse  alike  to  slave  and 
slave-owner,  on  account  both  of  what  it  brought 
and  what  it  took  away. 

It  is  strange  to  note  how  silently  and  unper- 
ceived  the  black  cloud  of  slavery  stole  over  the 
Colonial  Cavalier.  A  casual  entry  in  John  Rolfe's 
journal  records:  "  About  the  last  of  August  came 
in  a  dutch  man  of  warre  that  sold  vs  twenty 
Negars."  Before  the  arrival  of  this  fatal  vessel 
life-servitude  was  unknown.  The  system  of  ap- 
prenticeship, and  what  would  now  be  called  contract 
.labor,  prevailed.  These  indented  white  servants 
were  either  transported  convicts,  sold  for  a  season 
to  the  planters,  or,  like  the  iMaryland  rcdemptioncrs, 
poor  immigrants,  who  contracted  to  serve  for  a 
period  of  time  equivalent  to  the  cost  of  their  pas- 
sage, which  was  prepaid  to  the  master  of  the  ship 
on  which  they  came. 

The  work  of  these  indented  servants  was  not 
excessive.  "  Five  dayes  and  a  halfe  in  the  sum- 
mer," said  one  who  knew  the  situation  from  ex- 
perience, "  is  the  allotted  time  that  they  worke 
and,  for  two  months,  when  the  sun  predominates 

i6g 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

in  the  highest  pitch  of  his  heat,  they  claim  an  an- 
tient  and  customary  Priviledge,  to  repose  them- 
selves three  hours  in  the  day,  within  the  house. 
In  Winter  they  do  little  but  hunt  and  build 
fires." 

The  Sot- Weed  Factor  gives  a  much  less  rose- 
colored  account  of  the  life  of  a  redemptioner.  A 
woman-servant  in  the  poem,  looking  back  on  her 
life  in  England,  exclaims: 

"Not  then  a  slave  for  twice  two  j'ear, 
My  cloathes  were  fashionabl}'  new, 
Nor  were  my  shifts  of  linnen  blue. 
But  things  are  changed :  Now  at  the  Hoe 
I  daily  work  and  Barefoot  go, 
In  weeding  corn,  or  feeding  Swine 
I  spend  my  melancholy  time." 

A  "  melancholy  time"  many  of  the  redemp- 
tioners  must  have  had  in  their  enforced  service ; 
but  if  the  master  proved  too  severe,  the  indented 
servant  had  the  privilege  of  selecting  another, 
and  the  original  employer  was  indemnified  for  his 
loss.  Susan  Frizell,  who  had  run  away  from  her 
master,  was  recaptured  and  brought  before  the 
court  for  punishment ;  but  her  accounts  of  ill-usage 
so  moved  the  authorities,  that  they  remitted  the 
extra  term  of  service  to  which  running  away  had 
made  her  liable,  and  only  demanded  that  she 
should  earn  under  a  new  master  the  five  hundred 

170 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

pounds  of  tobacco  to  be  paid  to  her  old  employer. 
The  bystanders  were  so  touched  by  poor  vSusan's 
pitiful  situation  that  they  collected  six  hundred 
pounds  on  the  spot,  and  sent  Susan  on  her  way  re- 
joicing, with  a  capital  of  one  hundred  pounds  of 
tobacco  to  give  her  a  new  start  in  the  world. 

The  law  provided  that  the  servant,  when  his 
time  of  service  expired,  should  receive  a  portion 
of  goods  sufficient  to  make  him  an  independent 
freeman,  who  might  rise  to  be  a  councillor  or  an 
assemblyman.  A  Colonial  statute  directs  that  "  at 
the  end  of  said  terme  of  service,  the  master  or  mis- 
tress of  such  servant  shall  give  unto  such  man  or 
maid-servant,  3  barrels,  a  hilling  hoe  and  a  felling 
axe;  and  to  a  man-servant,  one  new  cloth  suite, 
one  new  shirte,  i  new  paire  shoes,  and  a  new  Mon- 
mouth capp ;  and  to  a  maid-servant,  i  new  petty- 
coat  and  waistcoat,  i  new  smock,  i  pair  new  shoes, 
I  pair  new  stockings  and  the  cloaths  formerly  be- 
longing to  the  servant." 

The  advantage  of  this  sj'stem  of  indented  service 
lay  in  its  gradual  absorption  of  the  immigrant 
population,  who  thus  had  time  to  understand  the 
laws  and  institutions  of  their  new  country  before 
they  became  in  their  turn  citizens  and  lawmakers. 
The  disadvantage  lay  in  the  encouragement  it 
gave  to  kidnapping.  Many  children  and  young 
people   in   the  seaboard  towns  of  England  were 

171 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

beguiled,  or  carried  by  force,  on  shipboard,  to  be 
sold  as  servants  in  the  colonies.  The  kidnappers, 
or  "spirits,"  as  they  were  commonly  called,  served 
as  bugaboos  in  many  an  English  nursery  to 
frighten  naughty  children  into  obedience  under 
threat  of  being  spirited  away  to  America. 

Howells'  "  State-Trials"  contains  a  pitiful  ac- 
count of  the  experiences  of  a  5'oung  nobleman  sold 
as  a  white  servant  in  Virginia  through  the  plot  of 
his  covetous  uncle,  who  wanted  his  property.  The 
nephew  is  a  mere  child  when  he  begins  his  appren- 
ticeship in  the  provinces,  but,  by  a  series  of  at- 
tempts to  escape,  he  prolongs  his  term  of  service 
till,  when  he  finally  succeeds  in  getting  back  to 
England  to  claim  his  own  from  the  treacherous  un- 
cle, he  is  a  man  grown,  and  as  difficult  of  recogni- 
tion as  the  Tichborne  claimant.  The  great 
majority  of  the  first  indented  servants  sent  over, 
however,  were  convicts  ripe  for  the  jail  or  the 
gallows,  and  only  respited  to  be  transported  to 
the  colonies,  which  long  suffered  from  the  intro- 
duction of  such  a  class  of  citizens. 

The  records  of  Middlesex  County,  England,  tell 
their  own  story: 

3  April,   15  James  I. 

Stephen  Rogers,  for  killing  George  Watkins  against  the 
form  of  Statute  of  the  first  year  of  King  James,  convicted 
of  manslaughter,  was  sentenced  to  be  hung,  but  at  the  in- 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

stance  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  Kn't,  was  reprieved  in  the 
interest  of  Virginia,  because  he  was  a  carpenter. 

6  Au^i,nist,  lb  Janus  I. 

On  his  conviction  of  incorrigible  vagabondage  Ralph 
Rookes  was  reprieved  at  Sherill  Johnson's  order  so  that  he 
should  be  sent  to  Virginia. 

2S  April,  1%  James  I. 

On  her  conviction  by  a  Jury  of  stealing  divers  goods  of 
Mary  Payne,  Elizabeth  Handsley  was  reprieved  for  Vir- 
ginia. 

■iisi  May,  iS  James  I. 

On  his  conviction  of  stealing  Richard  Atkinson's  bull, 
William  Hill  asked  for  the  book,  and  was  respited,  for  Vir- 
ginia. 

The  records  teem  with  such  cases.  Yet  these  were 
not  the  only  representatives  of  indented  servants. 
In  the  course  of  the  various  successive  political 
upheavals  which  shook  England,  it  chanced  that 
many  gentlemen  of  good  birth  and  breeding  were 
driven  over  to  the  colonies,  to  begin  life  there  at  the 
foot  of  the  ladder.  After  Monmouth's  Rebellion 
several  hundred  citizens,  some  of  eminent  stand- 
ing, were  sent  to  Virginia.  "Take  care,"  wrote 
the  king,  "that  they  continue  to  serve  for  ten 
years  at  least,  and  that  they  be  not  permitted  in 
any  manner  to  redeem  themselves  by  money  or 
otherwise,  until  that  term  be  fully  expired." 
Despite  the  royal  warning,  these  exiles  were  par- 
173 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

doned  before   the  term  was    ended,  and  became 
most  useful  and  valuable  citizens. 

Well  had  it  been  for  the  Cavalier  colonies  had 
they  adhered  to  this  system  of  apprenticeship  and 
indented  service.  Their  children  and  their  chil- 
dren's children  might  then  have  sung  of  "the 
nobility  of  labor,  the  long  pedigree  of  toil."  But 
with  the  widespread  introduction  of  negro  slavery, 
came  the  degradation  of  labor.  The  negro  rep- 
resented a  despised  caste.  He  labored;  therefore 
labor  was  contemptible.  Henceforth  there  was 
established  an  aristocracy  of  ease  and  wealth,  rest- 
ing on  a  foundation  of  unpaid  labor. 

With  the  establishment  of  slavery  there  grew 
up  a  more  marked  distinction  of  classes  among 
the  whites.  A  wide  gulf  separated  rich  and  poor. 
Devereux  Jarratt,  son  of  a  Virginia  carpenter, 
writes  in  his  autobiography:  "We  were  accus- 
tomed to  look  upon  gentlefolks  as  beings  of  a 
superior  order.  For  my  part,  I  was  quite  shy  of 
them  and  kept  ofi  a  humble  distance,  A  peri- 
wig in  those  days  was  a  distinguishing  badge  of 
gentlefolk ;  and  when  I  saw  a  man  riding  the  road 
with  a  wig  on,  it  would  so  alarm  my  fears,  and 
give  me  such  a  disagreeable  feeling,  that  I  dare 
say  I  would  run  as  for  my  life. " 

Thus  society  became  stratified:  At  the  top,  the 
great  landholders,  below  them  the  small  planters 

174 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

aping  the  manners  and  customs  of  their  rich  neigh- 
bors, and  underneath,  the  population  composed  of 
poor  whites  and  overseers.  The  negroes  were  no 
more  part  of  the  social  system  than  the  oxen  they 
drove  a-field. 

It  is  a  curious  commentary  on  the  Scriptural 
principle  of  turning  the  other  cheek  to  the  smiter, 
that  the  Indians,  who  resisted  the  encroachments 
of  the  whites  and  waved  the  tomahawk  in  response 
to  the  echo  of  the  Englishman's  gun,  were  feared 
and  respected,  while  the  blacks,  who  yielded 
meekly  to  the  yoke  of  servitude,  met  at  best  only  a 
good-natured  contempt. 

The  masters'  consciousness  of  the  injustice  of 
slavery  made  them  fearful  of  revolt  and  revenge, 
which  the  slaves  had  neither  skill  nor  energy  to 
plan.  The  whole  machinery  of  the  law  was  di- 
rected to  the  suppression  of  this  imaginary  dan- 
ger. All  gatherings  of  slaves  were  strictly  forbid- 
den. If  found  at  a  distance  from  the  plantations, 
any  negro  was  subject  to  lashes  on  the  bare  back. 
It  was  not  counted  a  felony  to  kill  a  slave  while 
punishing  him.  Negroes,  and  indented  servants 
as  well,  who  attempted  to  escape  were  whipped 
and  branded  on  the  cheek  with  the  letter  R,  and 
on  a  repetition  of  the  offence  they  might  be  put  to 
death.  No  punishment  was  too  severe  for  this 
crime  of  running  away,  curiously  denominated  in 

175 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

the  old  statutes  "stealth  of  one's  self."  Among 
the  enormous  offences  set  forth  in  a  ]\Iaryland  Act  of 
1638  I  find,  "  Harboring  or  clokeing  of  another's 
servant  without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the 
Master  or  Mistress." 

In  spite  of  all  precautions,  a  slave  did  succeed, 
now  and  then,  in  gaining  his  freedom.  It  is  with 
great  satisfaction  that  I  read  an  old  Act  of  Assem- 
bly, setting  forth  that  "Whereas  a  negro  named 
Billy,  slave  to  John  Tillit,  has  for  several  years 
unlawfully  absented  himself  from  his  master's 
service,  said  Billy  is  pronounced  an  outlaw,  and  a 
bounty  of  a  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  set  on  his 
head."  The  bounty  does  not  trouble  me,  for  I 
feel  sure  that  the  craft  and  strength  which  made 
Billy  an  outlaw,  kept  him  safe  from  the  bolts 
aimed  against  him  by  the  colonial  legislature. 

The  statute-books  of  Marj^land  and  Virginia  are 
records  of  the  barbarity  into  which  injustice  may 
drive  a  kindly,  liberty-loving  people  who  are  forced 
into  cruelty  by  the  logic  of  events.  Having  taken 
the  wrong  road,  like  Bunj^an's  Pilgrim,  the  Cava- 
liers found  the  rocks  ready  to  fall  on  them  if  they 
went  forward,  and  the  gulf  yawning  behind  them 
if  they  tried  to  turn  back. 

It  must  never  be  forgotten  in  their  behalf  that 
they  did  try  to  turn  about,  when  they  saw  their 
error.     Their  best  men,  over  and  over  again,  urged 

176 


The  Colonial  Cavalier, 

the  prohibiting  of  slavery,  and  there  is  more  than 
a  probability  that  they  would  have  won  their 
cause,  but  for  the  attitude  of  that  country  whose 
air  was  afterward  pronounced  too  pure  to  be 
breathed  by  a  slave  insomuch  that  his  shackles 
fell  off,  when  he  touched  the  shore  sacred  to  lib- 
erty. Yet,  in  1695,  this  hi^dily  moral  and  philan- 
thropic England  declared  in  a  statute,  the  opinion 
of  its  king  and  Parliament,  that  the  slave-trade 
was  highly  beneficial  to  the  kingdom  and  colonies. 
In  17 12,  Queen  Anne  boasted  in  her  speech  to  Par- 
liament, of  her  success  in  securing  to  England  a 
new  market  for  slaves  in  Spanish  America.  Jeffer- 
son testified  that  Virginia  was  constantly  balked 
in  her  efforts  to  throw  off  slavery  by  the  attitude 
of  the  home  government.  Carolina  attempted  re- 
striction and  gained  a  rebuke.  In  1775,  the  Earl 
of  Dartmouth  haughtily  replied  to  a  colonial  agent, 
"  We  cannot  allow  the  colonies  to  check,  or  dis- 
courage in  any  degree,  a  traffic  so  beneficial  to  the 
nation." 

Yet  all  the  blame  cannot  be  thrown  on  Eng- 
land. Had  the  colonies  been  as  firm  in  defence  of 
their  duties,  as  they  were  when  their  rights  were 
in  question,  England  must  have  yielded.  Vir- 
ginia was  the  first  State  to  enunciate  the  proposi- 
tion of  the  equality  of  man,  yet  was  blind  to  her 
own  inconsistency.  The  leading  supporters  of 
177 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

the  cause  of  liberty  were  themselves  slave-owners. 
George  Washington  owned  negroes.  John  Ran- 
dolph had  a  bunk  for  his  slave  side  by  side  with 
the  bed  of  his  pet  horse.  Patrick  Henry  wrote 
with  admirable  candor:  "  Believe  me,  I  shall  honor 
the  Quakers  for  their  noble  efforts  to  abolish  sla- 
very ;  they  are  equally  calculated  to  promote  moral 
and  political  good.  Would  any  one  believe  that 
I  am  master  of  slaves  of  my  own  purchase?  I  am 
drawn  along  by  the  general  inconvenience  of  liv- 
ing without  them.  I  will  not — I  can  not — justify 
it."  The  great  Southern  statesman  said  that  he 
trembled  for  his  country  when  he  remembered 
that  God  was  just.  Washington  deplored  the 
system,  yet  so  closely  were  all  commercial  and 
political  interests  interwoven  with  it  that  it 
seemed  impossible  to  disentangle  them.  Even 
philanthropy  did  not  scorn  its  alliance.  White- 
field  expended  the  money  raised  by  his  eloquent 
preaching  at  Charleston,  on  a  plantation  with 
slaves  to  work  it  for  the  benefit  of  an  orphan 
asylum. 

The  Church  spread  its  surplice  of  protection 
over  the  institution.  Baptism  was  permitted  to 
the  slave,  but  with  the  distinct  understanding  that 
it  was  to  make  no  difference  in  the  condition  of 
bondage  of  these  brothers  in  Christ.  One  South 
Carolina   clergyman  ventured   to   preach   on    the 


Tlie  Colonial  Cavalier. 

duties  of  masters  to  their  servants,  but  his  con- 
gregation said  to  him:  "Sir,  we  pay  you  a  gen- 
teel salary  to  read  to  us  the  prayers  of  the 
liturgy  and  to  explain  to  us  such  parts  of  the 
Gospel  as  the  rule  of  the  Church  directs,  but  we 
do  not  want  you  to  teach  us  what  to  do  with  our 
blacks." 

The  Northern  colonies  were  freed  from  the  curse 
of  slaveholding  as  much  by  policy  as  by  principle. 
They  tried  slave-owning,  but,  happily  for  them,  it 
did  not  pay.  The  climate  and  the  conditions  of 
their  industries  forbade  its  spread  among  them. 
But  their  hands  were  not  unstained.  If  they  did 
not  buy  slaves,  they  sold  them.  There  still  exists, 
if  Bishop  Meade  may  be  trusted,  a  bill  of  sale 
of  a  slave,  bearing  the  signature  of  Jonathan 
Edwards. 

Every  year  ships  were  fitted  out  from  Medford, 
Salem,  or  New  Bedford,  which  sailed  away  loaded 
with  rum  to  be  exchanged  in  Africa  for  negroes, 
who  in  turn  were  sold  for  molasses,  to  be  made 
into  rum  again.  The  transactions  of  one  of  these 
slavers  are  preserved  in  the  History  of  Medford, 
and  makes  interesting  reading  for  those  who  would 
hold  up  the  Puritan  as  innocent  of  the  transgres- 
sion which  stains  the  character  of  the  Cavalier. 
The  deadly  parallel  column  tells  its  story,  so 
that  he  who  runs  may  read : 

179 


The  Colonial   Cavalier 


Dr.    The  Natives  of  Annamboe. 

Per  Contra.                 Cr. 

1770. 

Gals 

1770  Gals 
Apr.  22. 

Apr.  22.  To  1  hh.  of  rum. . . 

. .    no 

May  I. 

May     I.        "        "        "... 

..  130 

By  I  Prime  Woman  Slave.  130 
May  2. 

May    2.         "        "        "... 

..  105 

By  I  Boy  Slave  4  ft.  i  in 105 

Mav  7. 

May     7.        '•        "        "... 

..  130 

By  I  Boy  Slave  4  ft.  3  in 108 

Mav  5. 

May     5.  Cash  in  gold  5  oz. 

2 

I  Prime  Man  Slave  5  oz 2 

May  5. 

"        s-       "      "      "      20Z. 

( 

I  Old  Man  for  a  Lingister . . .  3  oz 

"        5.  2  doz.  of  snuff  I  oz. 

(    ^ 

The  negroes  thus  brought  to  the  American  col- 
onies were  not  of  one  race.  A  slaver  often  carried 
men  of  different  languages,  habits,  and  character- 
istics, perhaps  hereditary  enemies.  Some  were 
jet  black,  some  mahogany-colored,  and  others  still 
of  a  tawny  yellow,  with  flat  noses  and  projecting 
jaws.  This  last  type  belonged  to  the  low,  swampy 
ground  at  the  Niger's  delta,  and  marked  the  race 
most  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  rice  in  its 
swamps,  so  fatal  to  white  laborers.  All  this  diver- 
sity among  the  negroes  accounts  for  their  lack  of 
power  and  energy  to  combine  in  a  struggle  for  free- 
dom. "  The  negroes  that  have  been  slaves  in  their 
own  country,"  Hugh  Jones  says,  "make  the  best 
servants ;  for  they  that  have  been  kings  and  great 
men  there,  are  generally  lazy,  haughty  and  ob- 
stinate." Alas,  for  these  poor  magnates  from 
Heathendom ! 

180 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

The  Cavaliers  did  not  find  the  problem  of  do- 
mestic service  solved  by  life-ownership  of  servants. 
Colonel  Fitzhugh  writes  Mr.  John  Buckner  in  1680: 
"  I  hope  you  will  make  an  abatement  for  your 
Dumb  Negro  that  you  sold  me.  Had  she  been  a 
new  Negro,  I  must  have  blamed  my  fate,  not  you ; 
but  one  that  you  had  two  years,  I  must  conclude 
you  knew  her  qualities,  which  is  bad  at  work,  worse 
at  talking.  You  took  advantage  of  the  softness  of 
my  messenger  to  quit  your  hands  of  her." 

In  spite  of  this  unsuccessful  experiment,  we 
find  him  two  years  later  making  another  ven- 
ture in  human  live-stock,  by  ordering  John 
Withers  to  buy  "  ^Ir.  Walton's  Boy  for  ^20,  or 
^54  with  him  and  2  others,  unlesse  you  can  make 
a  better  bargain. "  Poor  Colonel  Fitzhugh  might 
well  be  discouraged,  for  he  had  tried  every  kind 
of  servant,  black  and  white,  bond  and  free,  with- 
out satisfactory  results.  "I  would  have  you,"  he 
writes  in  despair  to  a  sea  captain  in  England, 
"  bring  me  in  a  good  housewife.  I  do  not  intend 
or  mean  to  be  brought  in,  as  the  ordinary  servants 
are,  but  to  pay  her  passage  and  agree  to  give  her 
fifty  shillings  or  three  pounds  a  year  during  the 
space  of  five  years,  upon  which  terms,  I  suppose, 
good  servants  ma)'  be  had,  because  they  have  their 
passage  clear,  and  as  much  money  as  they  can 
have  there.     /  would  have  a  good  one  or  none.     I  look 

181 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

upon  the  generality  of  wenches  you  bring  in  as 
not  worth  keeping." 

So  the  Colonial  Cavaliers  found  trouble  in  their 
households  wath  servants  of  any  race  or  color,  and 
the  gentle  nature  of  the  blacks  proving  specially 
adaptable  to  servitude,  and  purchase  money  seem- 
ing so  much  less  than  wage-money,  they  gradually 
did  away  with  other  service.  Every  plantation 
had  its  negro-quarters,  where  crowds  of  picka- 
ninnies swarmed  in  the  sunshine  outside  the  little 
cabins  with  scarcely  more  clothing  on  than  their 
parents  had  worn  in  their  African  jungle.  The 
bread  of  Indian  corn  was  baked  on  the  hoe  over 
a  smoky  fire,  or  in  the  ashes.  When  the  day's 
work  was  done,  the  negroes  sat,  with  their  banjos 
or  rude  musical  instruments,  playing  accompani- 
ments to  their  strange,  weird  music,  a  mixture  of 
reminiscences  of  barbarism  and  the  hymns  they 
caught  from  the  "  New  Lights" ;  or  they  spent  the 
evening  more  merrily,  dancing  jigs  to  the  twang- 
ing of  a  broken  fiddle.  They  were,  on  the  whole, 
a  careless,  happy  race,  taking  no  thought  for  the 
morrow,  content  to  accept  food  and  clothing  at  the 
hands  of  "  Massa  and  Missus,"  and,  for  the  rest,  to 
work  when  they  must,  shirk  when  they  could,  and 
carry  a  merry  heart  through  life.  The  outward 
circumstances  of  their  lot  were  hard.  Anbury,  in 
his   American    travels,    observed    their    condition 

182 


Tlie  Colonial   Cavalier. 

closely  and  described  it  with  wliat  we  must  be- 
lieve impartial  accuracy.  The  life  of  these  field- 
hands  was  much  more  severe  than  that  of  the 
household  servants,  both  because  the  work  itself 
was  harder,  and  because  it  was  ruled  by  tlie  over- 
seer, usually  a  brute.  It  is  of  these  field  negroes 
that  Anbury  is  writing,  when  he  says:  "  They  are 
called  up  at  daybreak,  and  seldom  allowed  to 
swallow  a  mouthful  of  hominy  or  hoecake,  but 
are  driven  out  into  the  field  immediately,  where 
they  continue  at  hard  labor  without  intermission 
till  noon,  when  they  go  to  their  dinners  and  are 
seldom  allowed  an  hour  for  that  purpose.  Their 
meals  consist  of  hominy  and  salt,  and  if  their 
master  is  a  man  of  humanity,  touched  by  the  finer 
feelings  of  love  and  sensibility,  he  allows  them 
twice  a  week  a  little  fat,  skimmed  milk,  rusty 
bacon  or  salt  herring  to  relish  this  miserable  and 
scanty  fare.  .  .  .  After  they  have  dined  they  re- 
turn to  labor  in  the  field  till  dusk  in  the  evening. 
Here  one  naturally  imagines  the  daily  labor  of 
these  poor  creatures  over ;  not  so.  They  repair  to 
the  tobacco-houses,  where  each  has  a  task  of  strip- 
ping allotted,  which  takes  up  some  hours;  or  else 
they  have  such  a  quantity  of  Indian  corn  to  husk, 
and  if  they  neglect  it,  are  tied  up  in  the  morning, 
and  receive  a  number  of  lashes  from  those  unfeel- 
ing monsters,  the  overseers.  When  they  lay  them- 
183 


The   Colonial   Cavalier. 

selves  down  to  rest,  their  comforts  are  equally 
miserable  and  limited,  for  they  sleep  on  a  bench, 
or  on  the  ground  with  an  old  scanty  blanket,  which 
serves  them  at  once  for  bed  and  covering.  Their 
clothing  is  not  less  wretched,  consisting  of  a  shirt 
and  trousers  of  coarse,  thin,  hard,  hempen  stuff 
in  the  Summer,  with  an  addition  of  a  very  coarse 
woolen  jacket,  breeches,  and  shoes  in  Winter." 
Yet,  in  spite  of  toil  and  privation,  these  negroes, 
so  the  traveller  testifies,  are  jovial  and  contented. 

It  seems  incomprehensible  to  us  that  the  noble, 
sensitive,  kindly  Southern  gentlemen  saw  all 
these  things  in  silence;  that  even  when  they  had 
no  share  in  the  beating  of  the  wa3'farer,  they  still 
passed  by  on  the  other  side  with  the  priest  or  the 
Levite  and  offered  no  succor.  Yet,  do  we  not  do 
the  same  thing  every  day?  We  know  that  the  faces 
of  the  poor  are  ground  while  the  rich  prosper,  that 
the  animal  world  is  abused  and  tortured,  yet  be- 
cause we  think  ourselves  powerless,  we  strive  to 
make  ourselves  callous,  and  turn  away  our  eyes 
that  we  may  not  see  where  we  cannot  help. 

Many  there  were  who  had  the  courage  as  well 
as  the  impulse  to  protest.  One  of  the  firmest  and 
the  ablest  of  these  was  Jefferson.  He  had  the 
insight  to  perceive  not  only  the  injustice  to  the 
slave,  but  the  injury  to  the  slaveholder.  "  There 
must,  doubtless,"  he  writes,  "be  an  unhappy  in- 

184 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

fluence  on  the  manners  of  our  people  by  the  exist- 
ence of  slavery  among  us.  The  whole  commerce 
between  master  and  slave  is  a  perpetual  exercise 
of  the  most  boisterous  passions,  the  most  unre- 
mitting despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading 
submission  on  the  other.  Our  children  see  this 
and  learn  to  imitate  it,  for  man  is  an  imitative 
animal.  This  quality  is  the  germ  of  all  education 
in  him.  From  his  cradle  to  his  grave,  he  is  learn- 
ing to  do  what  he  sees  others  do.  If  a  parent 
could  find  no  motive  either  in  his  philanthropy  or 
his  self-love  for  restraining  the  intemperance  of 
passion  toward  his  slave,  it  should  always  be  a 
sufficient  one  that  his  child  is  present.  But  gen- 
erally it  is  not  sufficient.  The  parent  storms;  the 
child  looks  on,  catches  the  lineaments  of  wrath, 
puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the  circle  of  smaller 
slaves,  gives  a  loose  to  the  worst  of  his  passions; 
and  thus  nursed,  educated,  and  daily  exercised  in 
tyranny,  cannot  but  be  stamped  by  it  with  odious 
peculiarities.  The  man  must  be  a  prodigy  who 
can  retain  his  manners  and  morals  undepraved  by 
such  circumstances." 

Yet  we  are  constantly  meeting  such  prodigies 
in  the  history  of  the  Cavalier.  Men  whose  pure 
lives,  gentle  manners,  and  courtesy  to  high  and 
low,  whose  imselfishness  and  cheerful  benignity 
may  be  matched  against  those  of  the  hardest- 
185 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

working  Puritan  cr  the  most  radical  upholder  of 
the  equal  rights  of  man.  The  old  noblesse  oblige 
principle  still  held  sway.  Governor  Gouch,  of 
Virginia,  being  once  on  a  time  reproached  for  hav- 
ing returned  the  bow  of  a  negro,  replied  in  the 
good  old  Cavalier  spirit :  "  I  should  be  much 
ashamed  that  a  negro  should  have  better  manners 
than  I."  The  field  hands  were  kept  at  a  distance, 
but  the  house-servants  were  admitted  to  the 
closest  intimacy,  especially  when  acting  in  the 
capacity  of  maids  and  nurses.  Many  a  golden 
head  was  laid  for  comfort  on  the  black  breast  of 
some  faithful  Mammy,  while  the  childish  sorrow^s 
were  poured  into  her  listening  ear,  and  many  a 
gray-haired  woman  recalled  as  her  truest  friend, 
the  humble  slave  whose  life  had  been  devoted  to 
her  service. 

An  entry  in  Washington's  journal  shows  how 
well  he  understood  the  nature  of  the  negro,  and 
how  wisely  and  firmly  he  dealt  with  it.  One  day 
four  of  his  servants  were  employed  at  carpenter- 
ing, but  without  accomplishing  anything.  Instead 
of  scolding,  Washington  sat  himself  calmly  down 
to  watch  their  work.  Stimulated  by  his  presence, 
they  went  on  briskly.  The  wise  master  noted  the 
work  and  the  time,  and  then  informed  them  that 
just  so  much  must  be  done  in  his  absence.  It  was 
owing  to  such  management  that  the  products  of 

i86 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

the  Mount  Vernon  plantation  ranked  so  high  that 
all  barrels  marked  with  the  name  of  George  Wash- 
ington passed  the  inspectors  without  examination. 
Here,  if  anywhere,  was  a  man  who  might  be 
trusted  with  arbitrary  power  over  his  fellow-men, 
yet  he  was  one  of  the  most  outspoken  in  opposi- 
tion to  slavery;  and  he,  like  Jefferson,  realized  the 
terrible  strain  on  the  character  of  the  master. 
Woe  to  the  man  who  lives  constantly  with  in- 
feriors! He  is  doomed  never  to  hear  himself  con- 
tradicted, never  to  be  told  unwelcome  truth,  never 
to  sharpen  his  wits  and  learn  to  control  his  temper 
by  argument  with  equals.  The  Colonial  Cavaliers 
were  little  kings,  and  they  proved  the  truth  of  the 
saying  of  the  royal  sage  of  Rome,  that  the  most 
difficult  of  tasks  is  to  lead  life  well  in  a  palace. 
187 


HIS   CHURCH 


His  Church 


^^^\A/XE  fiot  My  i/iinges  7i<ith  profane!'"  so  runs 
1    1     the  inscription  on  the  quaint  old  silver 
chalice   used   in   the  communion   service    of   the 
Jamestown  church. 

Had  the  advice  been  heeded,  the  history  of  the 
Colonial  Church  of  England  would  not  have  been 
the  sorry  story  it  is.  In  point  of  fact,  holy  and 
profane  things  are  so  mixed  in  its  chronicles  that 
it  is  hard  to  write  of  it  without  seeming  levity 
and    flippancy.     To    call    the    dissension    between 

191 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

the  parsons  and  their  parishes  in  the  Southern 
Colonies  a  struggle,  would  be  to  dignify  it  beyond 
the  warrant  of  truth.  It  was  simply  a  series  of 
squabbles  without  ennobling  principle  on  either 
side.  Yet,  in  the  beginning,  better  things  prom- 
ised. Great  attention  was  paid  to  religious  forms 
and  observances,  and  the  earliest  laws  are  devoted 
to  the  regulation  of  church  affairs. 

In  the  year  after  the  landing  of  the  settlers, 
Edward  Maria  Wingfield,  first  president  of 
the  council  in  Virginia,  was  brought  to  trial  ac- 
cused of  various  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors. 
Among  the  charges  against  him  was  one  of  athe- 
ism. The  most  damaging  evidence  against  him 
was  the  absence  of  a  Bible  from  his  belongings. 
He  himself  felt  that  this  was  a  point  needing  ex- 
planation, which  he  made  by  saying  that  he  had 
"  sorted"  many  books  to  take  with  him  to  Virginia, 
and  was  sure  that  a  Bible  was  among  them,  but 
that  in  the  course  of  his  journey  he  had  found  "  the 
truncke"  somehow  broken  open,  and  the  Bible 
"ymbeasiled." 

In  rebuttal  of  evidence  showing  general  god- 
lessness  and  lack  of  respect  for  the  Sabbath,  he 
explained  that  on  the  Sunday  in  question,  Indian 
allarums  had  detained  every  one  at  the  palisade 
"till  the  daie  was  farre  spent."  Then,  he  goes 
on  to  say:  "the  preacher,  Master  Hunt,  did  aske 

192 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

me  if  it  weare  my  pleasure  to  have  a  sermon.  He 
said  he  was  prepared  for  it.  I  made  answer  that 
our  men  were  wean,-  and  hungr}-,  and  that  if  it 
pleased  him  wee  would  spare  him  till  some  other 
tyme. " 

The  tact  of  this  reply  should  certainly  have 
scored  a  point  in  Wingfield's  defence,  especially 
as  he  adds :  "  I  never  failed  to  take  such  noates  by 
wrighting  out  of  his  doctrine  as  ray  capacit}'  could 
comprehend,  unless  some  raynie  day  hindered  my  en- 
deavour. " 

These  excuses,  however,  were  not  satisfactory 
to  his  judges,  and  the  other  charges  against  him 
proving  only  too  well-founded,  he  was  deposed 
from  the  council,  and  was  glad  enough  to  slip  off 
back  to  England  at  the  first  chance.  Three  years 
later.  Dale  of  the  iron  hand  came  over  fresh  from 
the  Netherlands,  and  put  religion,  like  everything 
else,  under  martial  law.  The  captain  of  the  watch 
was  made  a  sort  of  tithing-man,  whose  business  it 
was  to  preserve  order  and  encourage  godliness  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet.  It  was  his  duty,  half 
an  hour  before  divine  service,  morning  and  even- 
ing, to  shut  the  ports  and  place  sentinels,  and,  the 
bell  having  tolled  for  the  last  time,  to  search  all 
the  houses,  and  to  command  ever}-  one  (with  the 
exception  of  the  sick  and  hurt)  to  go  to  church. 
This  done,  he  followed  the  gfuards  with  their  arms 
193 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

into  the  church,  where  he  laid  the  keys  before 
the  governor.  On  Sunday  he  was  ordered  to  see 
that  the  day  was  noways  profaned  by  any  dis- 
orders. 

The  Ancient  Planters  were  strict  Sunday  keep- 
ers. The  earliest  law  decrees  "  The  Sabbath 
to  be  kept  holy,  that  no  journeys  be  made  except 
in  case  of  emergent  necessitie  on  that  day,  that  no 
goods  bee  laden  in  boates,  nor  shooteing  in  gunns 
or  the  like  tending  to  the.  prophanation  of  the 
day."  The  offender  who  disobeys  this  decree  is 
sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  a  hundred  pounds  of 
tobacco  or  "be  layd  in  the  stocks." 

Henry  Coleman  was  excommunicated  for  forty 
days  for  scornful  speeches,  and  putting  on  his 
hat  in  church.  The  minister  as  well  as  the 
church  was  protected  by  law  from  irreverence  and 
disrespect.  In  1653,  it  was  ordered  by  the  court 
that,  for  slandering  Rev.  Mr.  Cotton,  "  Henry 
Charlton  make  a  pair  of  stocks  and  set  in  them 
several  Sabbath-days  during  divine  service,  and 
then  ask  Mr.  Cotton's  forgiveness  for  using  offen- 
sive and  slanderous  words  concerning  him."  A 
few  years  later,  IMary  Powell,  for  slandering  a 
minister,  was  .sentenced  to  receive  twenty  lashes 
on  her  bare  shoulders,  and  to  be  banished  the 
country.  I  tremble  to  think  what  would  have 
been  the  fate,  had  he  fallen  into  episcopal  hands, 
194 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

of  the  Puritan  who  spoke  of  bishops  as  "proud, 
popish,  presumptuous,  paltry,  pestilent,  and  per- 
nicious prelates;"  and  further  as  "impudent, 
shameless,  Sind  ivainscot-faced."  I,  for  one,  should 
have  voted  to  take  something  from  his  punishment, 
on  the  ground  of  his  supplying  the  world  with  a 
new  and  most  expressive  phrase. 

Maryland,  liberal  in  all  sectarian  matters, 
strictly  forbade  calling  names  such  as  "  Heretick, 
Schismatick,  Idolator,  Papist,  Antinomian,  etc.," 
and  sentenced  the  offender  to  a  fine  of  ten  shil- 
lings. She  also  dealt  summarily  with  unbelievers. 
Her  assembly  ordained  that  "  whatsoever  person  or 
persons  shall  deny  the  Holy  Trinity,  or  shall  utter 
reproachful  speeches  concerning  the  Trinity  or 
any  of  the  said  persons  thereof,  shall  be  punished 
with  death  and  confiscation  of  land  and  goods  to 
the  Lord  Proprietary." 

The  first  church  in  America  was  a  very  simple 
affair,  an  old  rotten  tent  set  up  in  the  Jamestown 
marsh  under  the  pines  and  hemlocks.  The  soft 
May  weather  made  even  so  much  shelter  unneces- 
sary, and  it  was  replaced  by  an  awning  stretched 
between  the  rustling  boughs.  But  busy  as  the 
settlers  were,  they  set  to  work  at  once  on  a  chapel 
built  of  logs  and  covered  with  sedge  and  dirt,  which 
in  turn  was  replaced  by  a  church  of  timber,  fifty 
feet  long,  by  more  than  twenty  in  breadth.     This 

195 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

final!}'  was  replaced  by  the  brick  building  whose 
ruined  arches  alone  remain  to  tell  its  story. 

When  Lord  De  la  Warre  arrived  in  Virginia  and 
found  the  colonists  in  desperate  straits,  he  wisel)' 
occupied  their  attention  by  setting  them  to  repair 
and  refurnish  the  wooden  church  then  in  exist- 
ence, and  to  decorate  it  with  flowers.  Here  dur- 
ing his  government  he  worshipped  in  a  degree  of 
state  more  fitting  for  a  cathedral  than  for  a  wooden 
chapel  in  the  wilderness.  He  went  to  church  in 
full  dress,  attended  by  his  lieutenant-general,  ad- 
miral, vice-admiral,  master  of  the  horse  and  the 
rest  of  the  council,  with  a  guard  of  fifty  halberd- 
bearers  in  red  cloaks  behind  him.  When  the  ser- 
vice ended,  the  procession  filed  out  with  as  much 
solemnity  as  it  had  entered,  and  escorted  the 
Governor  to  his  house. 

Religious  observances  played  an  important  part 
in  the  early  days  of  the  settlement.  The  first 
statute  made  by  an  early  legislative  assembly, 
requires  that  in  every  plantation  some  house  or 
room  be  specially  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  God, 
sequestered  and  set  apart  for  that  purpose,  and  not 
to  be  of  any  temporal  use  whatever. 

It  is  curious,  in  view  of  this  last  clause,  to  find  it 
recorded  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  itself :  "The 
most  convenient  place  wee  could  finde  to  site  in 
was  the  cjuire  of  the  churche."     Surely  no  place 

196 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

could  have  been  more  appropriate  for  the  gathering 
of  the  first  free  assembly  of  the  people  in  America, 
and  it  was  equally  fitting  that  their  proceedings 
should  open  with  a  prayer  for  guidance  in  the  path 
which  was  destined  to  be  darker  and  more  difficult 
than  they  knew.  "  Forasmuch  as  men's  affaires  doe 
little  prosper  when  God's  service  is  neglected,"  a 
prayer  was  said  by  Mr.  Bucke,  the  minister,  "that 
it  would  please  God  to  guide  and  sanctifie  all  our 
proceedings  to  His  owne  glory  and  the  good  of  this 
Plantation." 

If  the  church  of  that  time  was  devoted  to  tem- 
poral uses,  religious  services  were  not  confined 
within  its  walls.  Alexander  Whitaker,  the  apos- 
tle of  Virginia,  writes  home  that  he  exercises  at 
the  house  of  the  governor,  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  every 
Saturday  night.  This  "exercising,"  or  hearing 
of  the  catechism,  with  prayer  and  song,  in  private 
houses,  was  a  matter  of  necessity  in  days  when  a 
parish  covered  a  space  hardly  to  be  crossed  in  a 
day's  journey,  with  the  roads  or  bridle-paths  choked 
with  undergrowth,  and  blocked  by  fallen  logs. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Forbes  seems  to  have  been  of  a  com- 
plaining natiire,  yet  he  rouses  one's  sympathy 
when  he  tells  of  the  difficulties  imder  which  he 
labored. 

"My  parish,"  he  says,  "  extendeth  LX  miles  m 
length,  in  breadth  about  XI."     Over  this  distance 

197 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

were  scattered  some  four  hundred  families,  to 
\Yhom  he  was  expected  to  minister.  "  Sometimes," 
he  goes  on  plaintively,  "  after  I  have  travelled  Fifty 
Miles  to  Preach  at  a  Private  House,  the  weather 
happening  to  prove  bad  on  the  day  of  our  meeting 
so  that  very  few  met,  or  else  being  hindred  by 
Rivers  and  Swamps  rendred  impassable  with 
much  rain,  I  have  returned  with  doing  of  nothing 
to  their  benefit  or  mine  own  satisfaction." 

Few  clergymen  of  that  day  and  region  took  their 
duties  so  seriously.  They  were  for  the  most  part 
quite  willing  to  have  service  read  by  some  deputy- 
priest  or  layman  in  the  "chapels  of  ease;"  or  if 
they  must  officiate,  they  chose  some  sermon  from 
Thomas  Fuller  or  Jeremy  Taylor,  or,  as  a  last  re- 
sort, constructed  one  at  small  expense  of  labor  on  a 
scaffolding  of  headings  resting  on  an  underpinning 
of  text.  A  fine  example  of  this  method  of  sermon- 
building  I  find  in  the  discourse  sent  home  by  the 
pious  Whitaker.  He  takes  as  his  text,  "Cast  thy 
bread  upon  the  waters,"  and  expounds  it  after 
this  fashion : 

"  I.  The  dutie  to  be  performed:  Cast  thy  bread. 
Be  liberal  to  all. 

"2.  The  manner  of  bestowing  alms:  By  casting 
it  away. 

"3.  What  is  to  be  given?  Bread;  all  things 
needful,  yes,  and  of  the  best  kind. 

19S 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

"  4.  Who  may  be  liberal?  Even  those  that  have 
it.      It  must  be  thy  bread — thine  own. 

"  5.  To  whom  we  must  be  liberal:  To  all;  yea 
to  the  Waters.'' 

This  kind  of  sermon  had  the  double  advantage 
of  being  easy  for  the  preacher,  and  restful  to  the 
congregation.  It  went  along  at  a  comfortable 
iog-trot,  like  a  family  horse,  and  the  hearer  was  in 
no  danger  of  being  hurled  over  the  head  of  revival 
eloquence  into  lurid  threats  of  future  punishment. 
If  the  preachers  of  the  Church  of  England  did  not 
kindle  spiritual  ardor,  at  least  they  did  not  keep 
children  awake  o'  nights,  nor  frighten  nervous 
women  into  hysterics. 

While  these  drowsy  discourses  were  going  on  in 
the  Southern  colonies,  the  Puritan  divine  in  the 
New  England  pulpit  was  throwing  off  such  cheer- 
ful observations  as  these:  "  Every  natural  man  and 
woman  is  born  full  of  all  sin,  as  full  as  a  toad  is 
of  poison,  as  fiiU  as  ever  his  skin  can  hold ;  mind, 
will,  eyes,  mouth;  every  limb  of  his  body  and 
every  piece  of  his  mind."  The  future  awaiting 
such  a  wretch,  he  sets  forth  vividly :  "  Thou  canst 
not  endure  the  torments  of  a  little  kitchen-fire  on 
the  tip  of  thy  finger,  not  one-half  hour  together. 
How  wilt  thou  bear  the  fury  of  this  infinite,  end- 
less, consuming  fire  in  body  and  soul!"  To  these 
inspiring  doctrines  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Shepherd, 

199 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

another  Puritan  preacher  added  his  conviction  that 
"there  are  infants  in  hell  not  a  span  long." 

To  the  credit  of  the  Colonial  Church  of  England 
be  it  recorded  that  no  such  sentiments  disgraced  its 
pulpit   and    made    its    Sabbath    terrible    to   little 
children.     The   day   was  one   of   innocent  enjoy- 
ment, and  the  church  building  was  dear  to  gener- 
ation after  generation,  as  a  peaceful  and  memory- 
hallowed  spot.     The  early  settlers  had  little  money 
to  spend  in  adorning  their  churches,  yet  from   the 
beginning  there  was  a  great  difference  between  the 
bare  and  square  wooden  New  England  meeting- 
house and  the  quaint  Southern  church  of  brick  or 
stone,  recalling  in  every  line   the  beloved  parish 
churches  of  Old    England.     The   churchmen,  un- 
like the  Puritans,  found  no  sin  in  beauty  or  adorn- 
ment.     St.  John's  Church    at  Hampton   bore   the 
royal  arms  carved  on  its  steeple.      Colonel  Spring- 
er   left    by    his    will    one    thousand    pounds    of 
tobacco  to  pay  for  having  the  Lord's  Prayer  and 
Commandments    put    up    in    the    new    church  at 
Northampton.     By  a  statute  of   1660,  parishes  are 
enjoined  to  provide  at  their  own  cost  a  great  church 
Bible  and  two  books  of  Common  Prayer  in  folio 
for  the  minister  and  "dark";    also    communion- 
plate,   pulpit-cloth,  and  cushion,  "  that    all  things 
may  be  done  orderly  and  decently  in  the  church." 
In  the  next  century,  there  is  a  record  of  an  or- 
200 


Tlic  Colonial   Cavalier. 


der  sent  to  England  for  gold- 
leaf  to  enrich  a  chan- 
^^    eel,  which   was  to  be 
made  gorgeous  with  an 
original    painting    of    an 
angel  holding  back  a  crimson 
curtain,  draped  with  a  golden 
cord  and  tassel. 

The    pulpits    in    the    old 
churches  were  placed  at  an  an- 
gle,  if  the  church  were  in  the 
form  of  a  cross;  or  if  the  build- 
ing were  an  oblong  on  one  side. 
These  pulpits  were  so  high  that, 
unless  the  preacher  were  very 
tall,  nothing  could  be  seen  by 
the  congregation  but  the  top  of 
his  head.      Bishop  Meade  con- 
fesses    that 
when  he  was 
to  speak  from 
one   of   these 
old    box-pul- 
pits, he  would 
often      hurry 
to  church  be- 
fore his  hear- 
ers,  in  order 
aoi 


The  Colonial    Cavalier. 

to  pile  up  bricks  or  boards  on  which  to  stand. 
The  good  bishop  must  sometimes  have  found  his 
thoughts  sadly  distracted  from  the  sermon  by  the 
necessity  of  keeping  his  balance  on  his  improvised 
platform. 

The  sharp  distinction  of  classes,  which  was  so 
marked  a  feature  of  the  Cavalier  Colonics,  showed 
itself  even  in  church.  Certain  pews  were  set  apart 
and  marked  "  Magistrates"  and  "  Magistrates' 
Ladies."  Into  these  the  great  folks  marched  sol- 
emnly on  Sundays,  followed  by  their  slaves  bearing 
prayer-books,  and  never  suspecting  that  their  con- 
duct was  at  variance  with  gospel  principles.  The 
great  families  kept  their  private  pews  for  gener- 
ations, and  held  firmly  to  their  privileges.  Mat- 
thew Kemp,  as  churchwarden,  was  commended 
by  his  vestry  for  displacing  "  a  presuming  woman, 
who  would  fain  have  taken  a  pew  above  her  de- 
gree." In  the  very  earliest  church,  Lord  De  la 
Warre's  seat  was  upholstered  in  green  velvet  with 
a  green  "  cooshoon ;"  Governor  Spotswood's  pew 
in  Bruton  Parish  Church  at  Williamsburg  was 
raised  from  the  floor,  and  covered  with  a  canopy, 
while  the  interior  was  ornamented  with  his  name 
in  gilt  letters.  In  1750,  it  was  ordered  by  the 
vestry  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Norfolk,  that  "three 
captains  and  Mr.  Charles  Sweeny  be  allowed  to 
build  a  gallery  reaching   from  the  gallery  of   j\Ir. 

202 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

John  Taylor  to  the  school-boys'  gallery,  to  be  theirs 
and  their  heirs'  forever." 

Washington's  pew  was  an   ample  square,  fitted 
with     cushions    for    sitting    and    kncelin.i;.     The 
Puritans  would  have  thought  it  a  glaring  iniquity 
to  pay  such  heed  to  creature  comfort  in  the  house 
of  God.     They  would  have  been  more  in  sympa- 
thy with  the  Virginia  dame  of  high  degree  who, 
in  tardy  atonement  for  her  pride,  directed  that  her 
body  be  buried  under  the  pavement  in  the  aisle 
occupied   by    the   poor  of   the  church,   that  they 
might  trample  on  her  dust.      Such   gloomy    and 
ascetic  associations  with  the  house  of  God  were 
rare  at  the  South.      The  church  was  a  centre  of 
cheerfulness,  and  the  Sabbath  was  supposed  to  be 
a    day   of    innocent    enjoyment.     All    work    was 
frowned  upon  as  inconsistent  with   a  due  observ- 
ance  of   its   sanctity,   however;    and    the    Grand 
Jury  in  Middlesex  County,  Virginia,  in  1704,  pre- 
sented Thomas  Simms,  for  travelling  on  the  road 
on  Sunday  with    a    loaded  beast,    William    Mon- 
tague   and    Garrett    Minor   for   bringing    oysters 
ashore  on  the    Sabbath,   James    Senis  for  swear- 
ing and   cursing   on   the    holy    day;   but    outside 
such    restrictions    as   these,    no    Blue    Laws   en- 
forced gloom  as  part  of  the  decorum  of  Sunday- 
keeping. 

When  the  church-bell,  hung  usually  from  the 
203 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

bough  of  a  tree,  began  to  ring  for  service,  the 
roads  were  filled  with  worshippers  moving  church- 
ward, full  of  peace  and  good-will.  First  might  be 
seen  the  young  men  on  horseback,  with  the  tails 
of  their  coats  carefully  pinned  in  front,  to  protect 
them  from  the  sweat  of  their  horses'  flanks.  Lum- 
bering slowly  after  these  equestrians  came  the 
great  family-coaches,  from  \vhich  the  ladies  are 
assisted  by  the  dismounted  gallants.  Every 
young  damsel  is  planning  some  social  festivity. 
Before  or  after  service,  invitations  are  given,  and 
visits  of  weeks  in  length  are  arranged  at  the 
church  door.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  these  colo- 
nial maidens  sometimes  allow  their  thoughts  to 
wander  in  sermon-time,  from  their  quaint  little 
prayer-books,  with  their  uneven  type  and  crooked 
f's,  and  that  they  are  thinking  of  dinners  while 
they  confess  themselves  sinners.  But  their  levity 
is  not  treated  severely  by  the  priest,  for  he  is  as 
eager  for  his  Madeira  as  his  young  parishioners 
are  eager  for  their  minuet. 

They  were  jolly  dogs,  those  colonial  clergymen 
of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  no  more  to  be  taken  seriously  than  Friar 
Tuck,  whose  apostolic  successors  they  were.  Par- 
ishioners who  wished  spiritual  counsel  had 
diiificulty  in  finding  the  parson.  In  the  morning 
he  was  fox-hunting,  in  the  afternoon  he  was  over 

204 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

(or  under)  the  dining-tablc,  and  the  midnight  can- 
dle shone  on  his  wine-cup  and  dice-box. 

Like  their  brethren  across  the  Atlantic,  the 
colonial  clergy  were  strong  on  doctrine.  "  They 
abhorred  popery,  atheism,  and  idolatries  in  gen- 
eral, and  hiccupped 'Church  and  vStatc!'  with  fer- 
vor." Yet  tlieir  morals  were  at  so  low  an  ebb  as 
to  justify  the  complaint  made  against  them  that 
they  were  "  such  as  wore  black  coats  and  could 
gabble  in  a  pulpit,  roar  in  a  tavern,  exact  from 
their  parishioners,  and  rather  by  their  dissolute- 
ness destroy  than  feed  their  flock." 

One  clergyman  assaulted  a  dignitary  in  vestry- 
meeting,  pulling  off  his  wig  and  subjecting  him 
to  various  indignities,  and  capped  the  climax  of 
audacity  by  preaching  the  next  Sunday  from  the 
text:  "I  contended  with  them  and  cursed  them, 
and  smote  certain  of  them  and  pulled  off  their 
hair."  Another  minister  fought  a  duel  behind 
his  church,  and  a  third,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Blewer 
(pronounced  probably  Blower),  was  presented  by 
the  Grand  Jury  as  a  common  swearer.  All  ef- 
forts to  reform  the  clergy  were  in  vain.  Ministers 
were  sometimes  tried  for  drunkenness,  and  some 
of  the  tests  of  what  constitutes  drunkenness  were 
laid  down  by  the  court :  "  Sitting  an  hour  or  longer 
in  the  company  where  they  are  drinking  strong 
tlrink  and  m  the  mean  time  drinking  of  healths, 
205 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

or  otherwise  taking  the  cups  as  they  come  round, 
like  the  rest  of  the  company;  striking  or  challeng- 
ing or  threatening  to  fight."  Staggering,  reeling, 
and  incoherent  speech  are  justly  regarded  as  sus- 
picious circumstances,  and  the  advice  continues: 
"  Let  the  proof  of  these  signs  proceed  so  far  till 
the  judges  conclude  that  behavior  at  such  time 
was  scandalous,  undecent,  unbecoming  the  dig- 
nity of  a  minister,"  There  is  unfortunately  only 
too  clear  a  case  against  the  colonial  clergy ;  but  it 
is  only  fair  to  take  into  account  the  condition  of 
the  church  at  home.  If  the  clergymen  in  ]\Iary- 
land  and  Virginia  gambled  and  drank,  so  did  those 
in  England  and  Wales.  Did  not  Sterne  grace  the 
cassock?  Did  not  Gay  propose  taking  orders  for 
a  living,  and  did  not  Swift  write  from  a  deanery 
stuff  too  vile  for  print?  There  was  some  talk  at 
one  time  of  sending  this  great  Dr.  Swift  over  to 
Virginia  as  a  bishop,  and  a  worthy  one  he  would 
have  been,  to  such  a  church. 

The  eighteenth  century  was  a  period  of  deca- 
dence in  the  colonial  ministry.  Things  had  not  al- 
ways been  so  bad.  When  the  first  settlers  came  to 
America,  the  clergymen  who  accompanied  them 
were  men  of  sterling  worth  and  character.  They 
were  moved  by  a  hope  of  converting  the  Indians, 
and  came  in  a  true  missionary  spirit.  The  jour- 
nals of  those   adventurers  testify  to  the   courage 

206 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

with  whicli  their  chaplain  braved  dangers  and 
bore  discomforts.  "  I]}'  unprosperous  winds,"  they 
say,  "  we  were  kept  six  weeks  in  sight  of  Eng- 
land; all  which  time  Master  Hunt,  our  preacher, 
was  so  weake  and  sicke  that  few  expected  his  re- 
covery. Yet,  although  we  were  but  twentiemyles 
from  his  habitation,  and  notwithstanding  the 
stormy  weather,  nor  the  scandalous  imputations 
against  him,  all  this  could  never  force  from  him 
so  much  as  a  seeming  desire  to  leave  the  businesse. " 
All  through  the  journey  he  was  brave  and  cheer- 
ful, though  there  w^as  a  constant  ferment  of  wrath 
in  that  hot-headed  ship's  company,  which  might 
have  ended  in  bloodshed,  "had  he  not,  with  the 
water  of  patience  and  his  godly  exhortations,  but 
chiefly  by  his  true,  devoted  example,  quenched 
those  flames  of  envy  and  detraction."  Finally, 
after  the  fire  at  Jamestown,  IMaster  Hunt  lost  all 
his  library  and  "  all  he  had  but  the  cloathes  on 
his  backe,  yet  none  never  heard  him  repine  at  his 
loss." 

Following  Hunt  came  the  good  Whitaker,  "  a 
schollar,  a  graduate,  a  preacher  well  born  and 
well  friended  in  England,"  who  from  conscientious 
desire  to  help  the  savages  left  "  his  warm  nest  and, 
to  the  wonder  of  his  kinsmen,  and  to  the  amaze- 
ment of  them  that  knew  him,"  undertook  this  per- 
ilous enterprise.  Of  such  pith  and  worth  were 
207 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

these  first  priests;  but  the  Indian  massacre  made 
a  great  change.  Friendly  intercourse  with  the 
natives  being  cut  off,  there  was  no  chance  for  mis- 
sionary work  among  them,  and  the  plantations  were 
too  far  apart  to  make  a  vigorous  church  life  possible. 
The  pay  was  small  and  the  field  barren,  so  that 
there  was  little  temptation  either  to  the  ambi- 
tious and  intellectual,  or  to  the  spiritually  minded 
class  of  the  clergy,  to  come  to  America.  They  were 
as  a  rule,  therefore,  the  ignorant,  the  dissipated, 
and  the  mauvais  sujcts  who  filled  the  colonial  livings. 
Yet  at  the  lowest  ebb  there  were  exceptions  to 
this  rule.  There,  for  instance,  was  Rector  Robert 
Rose,  whose  tombstone  describes  him  as  discharg- 
ing with  the  most  tender  piety  the  "  domestick" 
duties  of  husband,  father,  son,  and  brother,  and  in 
short  as  "  a  friend  to  the  whole  human  race. "  His 
journal  gives  a  glimpse  of  his  relations  with  his 
parish,  very  cheering  in  the  dreary  waste  of 
quarrels  and  bickering  so  common  in  those  days. 
On  one  occasion,  during  a  drouth,  when  a  famine 
threatened,  he  told  his  people  that  corn  could  be 
had  from  him.  On  the  appointed  day  a  crowd 
gathered  before  his  house.  He  asked  the  appli- 
cants if  they  had  brought  money  to  pay  for  the 
corn.  Some  answered  cheerfully,  "Yes,"  others 
murmured  disconsolately,  "  No. "  The  good  priest 
then  said:    "You  who  have  money  can  get  your 

208 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

corn  anywhere,  but  these  poor  fellows  w^ith  no 
money  shall  have  my  corn." 

He  was  quite  human,  this  old  parson,  and  liked 
his  glass  of  "  Fyal"  or  Madeira,  but  he  knew  when 
to  stop,  and  he  feared  not  to  rebuke  the  rich  and 
great  among  his  parishioners  when  he  saw  theni 
making  too  merry.  He  enters  in  his  journal  the 
date  of  a  call  on  one  of  his  leading  families,  when 
he  found  the  father  absent  at  a  cock-fight.  The 
rector  adds  the  significant  memorandum :  "  Suffer 
it  no  more !" 

In  spite  of  a  few  bright  exceptions  like  this,  it 
is  idle  to  deny  that  the  relations  between  parish 
and  clergy  in  the  vSouthern  church  ill  bore  com- 
parison with  those  of  the  Puritan  and  his  min- 
ister; and  this  not  because  of  doctrine,  but  chiefly 
because  the  Puritan  minister  represented  the  free 
choice  of  the  people,  who  supported  him  will- 
ingly, and  looked  upon  him  with  reverence, 
as  the  messenger  of  the  Lord.  In  vSouth  Carolina, 
where  the  clergy  were  chosen  by  the  vestries,  the 
same  harmony  and  good-will  existed,  but  the 
church  in  Virginia  writhed  under  the  injustice  of 
taxation  without  representation. 

The  parishioners  were  expected  to  receive  and 

maintain  the  clergyman  appointed   them  without 

criticism  or  question.   How  any  attempt  on  the  part 

of  these  vestries  to  discipline  or  dismiss  the  min- 

209 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

ister  they  supported  was  received,  we  may  judge 
fiom  this  letter,  sent  by  Governor  Spotswood  to 
the  churchwardens  and  vestry  of  South  Farnham 
parish  in  17  i6: 

"Gentlemen:  I'm  not  a  little  surprised  at  the 
sight  of  an  order  of  yours,  wherein  you  take  upon 
you  to  suspend  from  his  office  a  clergyman  who 
for  near  sixteen  years  has  served  as  your  minister. 
.  .  .  As  no  vestry  in  England  has  ever  pretended 
to  set  themselves  up  as  judges  over  their  minis- 
ters, so  I  know  no  law  of  this  country  that  has 
given  such  authority  to  the  vestry  here.  If  a 
clergyman  transgresses  against  the  canons  of  the 
church,  he  is  to  be  tried  before  a  proper  judica- 
ture, and  though  in  this  country  there  be  no  bish- 
ops to  apply  to,  yet  there  is  a  substitute  for  a  bishop 
in  your  diocesan.  ...  In  case  of  the  misbehavior 
of  your  clergyman,  you  may  be  his  accusers,  but 
in  no  case  his  judges ;  but  much  less  are  you  em- 
powered to  turn  him  out  without  showing  cause." 

This  haughty  language  recalls  the  messages  of 
Charles  the  First  to  his  parliament.  Yet  in  spite 
of  his  support  of  the  priest  against  the  parish,  the 
Governor  never  dreamed  of  recognizing  him  as  his 
own  equal.  Some  years  later,  when  the  statel)'  old 
aristocrat  was  in  his  grave,  a  member  of  the  clergy 
sued  for  the  hand  of  his  widow.  Lady  Spotswood. 
The  reverend  suitor  writes  after  a  very  humble 
210 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

and  apologetic  fashion :  "  Madam,"  he  begins,  "  by 
diligently  perusing  your  letter  I  perceive  there 
is  a  material  argument — upon  which  your  strong- 
est objection  against  completing  my  happiness 
would  seem  to  depend,  viz.  :  That  you  would  in- 
cur ye  censure  of  ye  world  for  marrying  a  person 
in  ye  station  of  my  station  and  character.  By 
which  I  understand  that  you  think  it  a  diminution 
of  your  honour  and  ye  dignity  of  your  family  to 
marry  a  person  in  ye  station  of  a  clergyman.  Now, 
if  I  can  make  it  appear  that  ye  ministerial  office 
is  an  employment  in  its  nature  ye  most  honorable 
and  in  its  effects  ye  most  beneficial  to  mankind,  I 
hope  your  objections  will  immediately  vanish — 
that  you  will  keep  me  no  longer  in  suspense  and 
misery,  but  consummate  my  happiness."  After  a 
long  enumeration  of  the  dignities,  spiritual  rather 
than  social,  appertaining  to  the  clergy,  he  closes 
thus:  "And,  therefore,  if  a  gentleman  of  this  sa- 
cred and  honourable  character  should  be  married 
to  a  lady,  though  of  ye  greatest  extraction  and 
most  excellent  personal  qualities  (which  I  am  sen- 
sible you  are  endowed  with),  it  can  be  no  disgrace 
to  her  or  her  family ;  nor  draw  the  censures  of  ye 
world  upon  them  for  such  an  action."  Such  lan- 
guage is  in  curious  contrast  with  the  attitude  of 
New  England,  where  the  praise  bestowed  on  a 
woman  by  Cotton  Mather  as  the  highest  possible 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

compliment   was,   that  she    was  worth}'  to  be  the 
wife  of  a  priest. 

The  chief  cause  of  irritation  between  parson  and 
parish  in  the  colonial  church  was  from  the  be- 
ginning the  question  of  the  ministers'  salaries. 
In  some  places  these  were  very  small.  It  appears, 
for  instance,  in  the  record  book  of  the  church  at 
Edenton,  in  North  Carolina,  that  Parson  Garzia  in 
the  year  1736,  was  paid  only  ^5  for  holding  divine 
service.  But  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  the  salaries 
were  frequently  higher  than  those  paid  in  New 
England.  In  each  Virginia  borough  a  hundred 
acres  were  set  off  as  a  glebe,  or  parsonage  farm. 
Besides  this  and  the  salary,  there  were  fees  of 
twenty  shillings  for  a  wedding  by  license  and  five 
shillings  for  every  wedding  by  banns,  beside  forty 
shillings  for  a  funeral  sermon.  It  is  easier  to  im- 
derstand  the  fulsomeness  of  these  old  funeral 
discourses  when  we  learn  how  well  they  were  paid 
for,  and  realize  that,  in  common  honesty,  the  min- 
ister was  bound  to  render  a  forty-shilling  certifi- 
cate of  character  to  the  deceased. 

As  time  went  on,  the  salary  question  became  a 
burning  issue.  The  plantations  being  so  widely 
separated,  quarrels  often  arose  as  to  the  portion 
of  the  parish  on  which  the  chief  burden  of  the 
minister's  support  should  fall.  In  the  records 
of  the  very  early  Virginia  church  history,  we 
212 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

come  upon  an  instance  of  this  in  the  proceedings 
in  Lower  Norfolk  County,  at  a  court  held  25th 
May,  1640. 

"  Whereas  the  inhabitants  of  this  parrishe  beinge 
this  day  conevented  for  the  providinge  of  them- 
selves an  able  minister  to  instruct  them  concern- 
ing their  soules'  health,  mr.  Thomas  Harrison 
tharto  hath  tendered  his  service  to  god  and  the  said 
inhabitants  in  that  behalf  wch  his  said  tender  is 
well  liked  of,  with  the  genall  approbacon  of  the 
said  Inhabitants,  the  parishoners  of  the  parishe 
church  at  mr.  Sewell's  Point  who  to  testifie  their 
zeale  and  willingness  to  p'mote  gods  service  doe 
hereby  p'mise  (and  the  court  now  sittinge  doth 
likewise  order  and  establish  the  same)  to  pay  one 
hundrcth  pounds  starling  yearely  to  the  sd  mr. 
Harrison,  soe  Longe  as  hee  shall  continue  a  min- 
ister to  the  said  Parishe  in  recompence  of  his 
paynes. " 

This  arrangement  apparently  did  not  long  prove 
satisfactory,  for  the  record  goes  on  to  state  that 

"Whereas  there  is  a  difference  amongst  the 
Inhabitants  of  the  fforesaid  Pishe,  concerninge 
the  imployinge  of  a  minister  beinge  now  enter- 
tayned  to  live  amongst  them,  The  Inhabitants 
from  Danyell  Tanner's  Creek  and  upward  the  three 
branches  of  Elizabeth  river  (in  respect  they  are 
the   greatest    number    of    tithable    persons)    not 

213 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

thinknge  it  fitt  nor  equall  that  they  shall  pay  the 
greatest  pte  of  one  hundred  pownds  w*^  is  by  the 
ffore  sd  order  allotted  for  the  ministers  annuall 
stipend,  unlesse  the  sd  minister  may  teach  and 
Instruct  them  as  often  as  he  shall  teach  at  ye 
Pishe  church  siytuate  at  mr.  Sewell's  Pointe.  It 
is  therefore  agreed  amongst  the  sd  Inhabitants 
that  the  sd  minister  shall  teach  evie  other  Sunday 
amongst  the  Inhabitants  of  Elizabeth  River  at  the 
house  of  Robert  Glasscocke  untill  a  convenyent 
church  be  built  and  Erected  there  for  gods  service 
w^  is  agreed  to  bee  finished  at  the  charge  of  the 
Inhabitants  of  Elizabeth  River  before  the  first 
day  of  May  next  ensueinge. " 

However  little  value  they  might  set  on  Gospel 
privileges,  these  Danyell  Tanner's  Creek  men 
meant  to  have  what  they  paid  for,  or  cease  their 
payments. 

A  Virginia  statue  of  1696  declared  that  each 
minister  of  a  parish  should  receive  an  annual 
stipend  of  sixteen  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco. 
This  amounted  to  about  ^140,  as  tobacco  sold 
for  many  years  at  two-pence  the  pound.  But,  in  the 
year  1755,  there  was  a  shortage  in  the  tobacco  crop, 
and  the  legislature  passed  an  act  enabling  the  in- 
habitants of  the  county  to  discharge  their  tobacco- 
debts  in  money  for  the  present  year.  The  clergy 
seem  to  have  made  no  active  opposition ;  but  five 
214 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

years  later,  when  a  similar  law  was  passed,  and  to- 
bacco rose  sharply  in  price,  they  took  alarm,  and 
started  a  violent  campaign  in  defence  of  their 
rights.  The  Reverend  John  Camm  published  a 
sarcastic  pamphlet  on  "The  Two  Penny  Act." 
This  was  answered  by  Colonel  Bland  and  Colonel 
Carter  in  two  very  plain-spoken  documents. 
Camm  again  rode  a  tilt  against  them  in  a  pam- 
phlet  called   "The  Colonels   Dismounted." 

The  community  began  by  laughing,  but  ended 
by  getting  angry.  Mr.  Camm  could  find  no  more 
printers  in  Virginia,  and  was  obliged  to  go  to 
Maryland  to  carry  on  the  war.  The  contest  grew  to 
larger  proportions.  It  crossed  the  ocean  and  was 
laid  before  the  king,  who,  always  glad  of  an  op- 
portunity to  repress  anything  which  looked  like 
popular  sovereignty,  declared  in  favor  of  the 
clergy.  Armed  thus  by  royal  approbation,  the 
parsons  brought  their  case  to  trial.  The  Rev. 
James  Maury  brought  suit  in  Hanover  County 
against  the  collector.  The  defendants  pleaded 
the  law  of  1758,  but  the  plaintiff  demurred  on 
the  ground  that  that  law,  never  having  been 
confirmed  by  the  king,  was  null  and  void.  The 
case  was  tried,  Mr.  Lyons  arguing  for  the 
plaintiff  and  Mr.  Lewis  for  the  defendant.  The 
court  sustained  the  demurrer,  and  the  clergy 
looked  upon  their  case  as  won.  Lewis  was  so  sure 
215 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

of  it  that  he  retired  from  the  cause,  telling  his 
clients  that  there  was  nothing-  more  to  be  done  in 
the  matter.  Nothing  remained  but  for  a  jury  to 
fix  the  amount  of  damages. 

In  this  desperate  state  of  affairs,  Patrick  Henry, 
though  almost  unknown  at  the  bar,  was  called  in, 
and  he  agreed  to  argue  the  case  at  the  next  term. 
On  the  first  of  December,  accordingly,  he  came 
into  the  court-room,  to  find  it  densely  packed  with 
an  excited  throng  of  listeners.  The  bench  was 
filled  with  clergymen.  In  the  magistrate's  seat  sat 
the  young  orator's  own  father.  The  occasion  might 
well  have  tried  the  nerve  of  an  older  and  more 
experienced  speaker.  Lyons  opened  the  cause 
for  the  clergy,  with  the  easy  assurance  of  one  who 
sees  his  case  already  won.  He  told  the  jury  that 
the  law  of  1758  had  been  set  aside,  and  that  it  only 
remained  for  them  to  enforce  the  law  of  1748  b)^ 
awarding  suitable  damages  to  his  clients,  whom  he 
exalted  to  the  skies  in  a  eulogy  which  might  have 
better  fitted  better  men.  Lyons  sat  down,  and 
young  Henry  rose.  Awkwardly  and  falteringly 
he  began,  in  painful  contrast  to  the  easy  address 
of  Lyons.  The  plaintiffs  on  the  bench  looked  at 
each  other  with  smiles  of  derision.  The  people, 
who  realized  that  his  cause  was  theirs,  hung  their 
heads ;  but  only  for  a  moment.  The  young  orator, 
whose  timid  commencement  had  caused  winks  and 
216 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

nods  of  satisfaction  to  pass  along  the  bench  of  the 
clerg)',  suddenly  changed  his  whole  attitude.  All 
at  once  he  shook  off  embarrassment,  and  roused 
himself  like  a  lion  brought  to  bay.  The  people  at 
first  were  cheered,  then  became  intoxicated  with 
his  eloquence.  The  clergy  listened  to  the  flood 
of  sarcasm  and  invective  till  they  could  bear  no 
more,  and  fled  from  the  bench  as  from  a  pillory. 
Henry's  eloquence  swept  the  jury,  who  returned 
at  once  with  a  verdict  of  one  penny  damages  for  the 
clergy.  The  people,  wild  with  delight,  seized 
their  hero  and  carried  him  out  on  their  shoulders. 
Henceforward  he  was  a  marked  man,  and  for  years, 
Wirt  tells  us,  when  the  old  people  wished  to 
praise  any  one's  eloquence,  they  would  say:  "  He 
is  almost  equal  to  Patrick  when  he  pled  against 
the  parsons." 

"With  so  much  hostile  feeling  toward  their  clergy, 
how  shall  we  account  for  the  strong  affection  felt 
by  the  Virginians  for  their  church?  I  find  the  ex- 
planation in  that  loyalty  to  lost  causes  and  that 
aristocratic  conservatism  which  always  marked 
the  Cavalier.  These,  in  spite  of  the  debasement  of 
the  clergy,  the  zeal  of  the  "  New  Lights,"  the  al- 
lurements of  Rome,  and  the  eloquence  of  White- 
field,  Fox,  and  the  Wesleys,  long  kept  the  Cavalier 
Colonics  true  to  the  church  of  their  fathers.  It 
was  not  till  the  church  allied  itself  with  the  king 
217 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

against  the  people  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle, 
that  its  doom  fell. 

It  was  a  matter  of  course  that  self-interest  as 
well  as  sentiment  should  lead  the  clergy  to  es- 
pouse the  cause  of  England.  In  a  letter,  dated 
1766,  the  Rev.  John  Camm  writes  from  Virginia 
to  a  Mrs.  McClurg  in  the  mother-country.  He 
begins,  as  is  natural,  with  what  is  nearest  his 
heart,  namely  his  own  affairs,  and  requests  the 
lady  to  use  her  influence  with  Mr.  Pitt  to  secure 
him  a  Living  of  one  hundred  pounds  a  year. 
Fearing  that  his  request  is  too  modest:  "  Observe," 
he  says,  "  tho'  a  Living  of  one  hundred  nett  will 
do,  I  care  not  how  much  larger  the  Living  shall 
be.  If  by  conversing  with  the  Great,  you  have 
learnt  their  manners,  and  are  unwilling  to  bestow 
so  considerable  a  favour  on  a  friend  without  some 
way  or  other  finding  your  account  in  the  transac- 
tion, which  the  unpolished  call  a  bribe,  you  shall 
make  your  own  terms  with  me.  I  will  submit 
to  what  you  think  reasonable,  and  then,  you 
know,  the  larger  the  Living  or  Post  is,  the  better 
for  both." 

This  pious  worthy,  having  thus  disposed  of  the 
affairs  of  the  church,  next  deals  in  the  same  pub- 
lic spirited  manner  with  the  affairs  of  the  colo- 
nial politics: 

"  One    of    our    most    active,    flaming    and    ap- 
218 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

plauded  sons  of  liberty,  Col.  Rich'd  Henry  Lee, 
who  burnt  poor  Mercer  in  effigy,  raised  a  mob  on 
Archy  Ritchie,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  has  been  lately 
blown  np  in  the  Publick  Prints,  it  is  said,  by  Mr. 
James  Mercer.  It  appears  that  Lee,  previous  to 
his  Patriotism,  had  made  interest  to  be  made 
Stamp  Master  himself,  from  letters  it  seems  now 
in  the  possession  of  Col.  Mercer,  so  that  Lee  will 
find  it  difficult  hereafter  to  deceive  anybody  into 
an  opinion  of  his  Patriotism." 

Posterity  has  quite  definitely  settled  the  ques- 
tion of  the  comparative  patriotism  of  Col.  Lee 
and  the  Rev.  John  Camm,  and  only  wonders  that 
a  shrewd  people  tolerated  that  ecclestiastical 
fraud  so  long.  Peace  to  his  ashes!  since  he  and 
his  fellows  have  given  way  to  good  and  sincere 
men  who  have  purged  the  church  of  her  disgrace 
and  brought  her  back  to  her  older  and  better  tra- 
ditions. 

A  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  in  cocked  hat  and 
knee-breeches,  once  said  to  Madison   that   a   man 
might  be  a  Christian  in  any  church,  but  d>. gentleman 
must  belong  to  the  Church  of  England. 
219 


HIS    EDUCATION 


mSM 


iSib-ducatioD  • 


GOVERNOR  BERKELEY,  that  old  stnm- 
hling-block-head  who  stopped  the  wheels  of 
progress  in  Virginia  for  thirty  years,  wrote  the 
English  Commissioners  in  1671  :  "I  thank  God 
there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing;  and  I 
hope  we  shall  not  have,  for  learning  hath  brought 
disobedience  and  heresy  and  sects  into  the  world, 
and  printing  hath  divulged  them,  and  libels 
against  the  best  government.  God  keep  us  from 
both!" 

The  bigoted  Sir  William  set  forth  but  too  accu- 
rately the  condition  of  affairs  not  only  in  Virignia, 
but  in  Maryland  as  well.  It  is  impossible  to  avoid 
noting  the  striking  contrast  between  the  South  and 
New  England,  where,  by  this  time,  every  colony 
except  Rhode  Island  had  made  education  compul- 
sory, where  the  school-house  and  the  church  stood 
side  by  side  in  every  village.  An  old  New  England 
statute  commands  that  "  every  township,  after  the 
223 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

Lord  hath  increased  them  to  the  number  of  fifty 
households,  shall  appoint  one  to  teach  all  the  chil- 
dren to  write  and  read,  and  when  any  town  shall 
increase  to  the  number  of  a  hundred  families,  they 
shall  set  up  a  grammar  school."  All  the  energy 
of  the  Puritan  which  was  not  absorbed  in  religion 
vented  itself  on  education.  Ambition  turned  its 
current  to  learning  as  more  desirable  than  wealth. 
"Child,"  said  a  New  England  matron  to  her  boy, 
"if  God  make  thee  a  good  Christian  and  a  good 
scholar,  thou  hast  all  that  tliy  mother  ever  asked 
for  thee." 

Such  a  spirit  bred  a  race  of  readers  and  students, 
trained  to  sift  arguments  and  to  weigh  reasons. 
No  such  devotion  to  books  or  scholarship  prevailed 
at  the  South.  Yet  when  the  Revolution  came, 
the  most  thrilling  eloquence,  the  highest  states- 
manship, the  greatest  military  genius  were  found 
among  these  Southerners.  Their  ediication  had 
been  different  from  that  of  the  Puritans,  but  it  had 
been  an  education  none  the  less.  The  Cavalier 
had  been  trained  in  the  school  of  politics,  in  the 
responsibilities  of  power,  and  in  the  traditions  of 
greatness. 

The  very  absence  of  the  reading  habit  tended 

to  develop  action,  and  the  power  of  thinking  out 

problems  afresh,  unhampered  by  the  trammels  of 

other  men's  thoughts.      The  haughtiness  begotten 

224 


Tlic  Colonial   Cavalier. 

by  slave-holding  made  it  doubly  hard  for  the  mas- 
ter to  bow  the  knee  even  to  a  sovereign.  The 
habit  of  command  and  responsibility  of  power, 
which  shone  on  the  battlefield  and  in  the  council- 
chamber,  were  learned  on  the  lonely  estates,  where 
each  planter  was  a  king.  Behind  all  these  ele- 
ments of  training  were  the  ideals  which  moulded 
the  mind  and  the  character. 

Berkeley's  taunting  question  to  Bacon,  "  Have 
you  forgot  to  be  a  getitlanan  ?  "  owed  its  sting  to  this 
suggestion  that  he  had  been  false  to  the  traditions 
of  his  class.  If  we  hold  that  tact  and  courtesy  and 
gracious  hospitality  are  results  of  education,  we 
must  admit  that  the  Puritans  of  New  England 
might  have  learned  much  from  their  neighbors  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia.  The  education  of  poli- 
tics, of  power,  of  high  traditions  in  virtue  and  in 
manners  the  Colonial  Cavalier  possessed.  The 
education  of  books  he  lacked.  Here  and  there,  how- 
ever, we  find  traces  of  some  omnivorous  reader  even 
in  the  earliest  times.  Books  were  highly  valued 
and  treasured  by  generation  after  generation.  We 
find  among  the  old  wills  that  "  Richard  Russell 
left  Richard  Yates  'a  booke  called  Lyons  play,' 
'John  porter  junr.  six  books'  'John  porter  (i)  my 
exec'r,  ten  books,'  'Katherin  Greene  three  bookes, ' 
'One  book  to  Sarah  Dyer,'  'unto  Wm.  Greene 
his  wife  two  books  &  her  mother  a  booke,'  'Anna 
225 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

Godby    two    books,'    'Jno.    Abell    One    booke    in 
Quarto,'  'Richard  Lawrence  One  booke.'* 

*V.  Library  of  Edmund  Berkeley,  Esq.,  Member  of  the 
Council  (Died  15  Dec.  1718),  from  an  inventory  taken  the 
18  and  19  days  of  June,  1719  : 

The  whole  Duty  of  Mann  One  old  Bible  and  one  old 
comon  pray"'  book  The  Christian  Sacrifice  The  great 
Duty  of  frequenting  the  Christian  Sacrifice  A  Brief  chron- 
icle of  the  Civil  "Wars  of  England  and  Ireland.  Cavalrie 
the  first  Book  The  common  prayer  book  the  best  compan- 
ion. Janna  Divoram.  Contemplations  on  the  State  of 
Mann  the  first  part  of  the  English  Dixtionary  The  Wei 
Spring  of  Sciences  The  Young  Clerk  guide  A  compen- 
dium of  physick  The  Athenian  Oracle  A  Guide  to  Con- 
stables Some  consideration  touching  the  Stile  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  A  perfect  Guide  for  a  Studious  Young  Law- 
yer The  p'^sent  State  of  London,  a  Profitable  book  for 
those  that  are  burnt  with  Gunpowder.  The  first  part  of  the 
English  Dictionary  a  Compleat  history  of  England  The 
lives  of  the  noble  Grecians  and  Romans.  The  Tragedy  of 
Darius  and  Julius  Caesar  A  Compleat  Collections  of  all 
the  Laws  of  Virginia  The  new  world  of  English  words. 
The  history  of  the  Jews.  The  Countrey  Justice  The  first 
part  of  Compleat  Histrey  The  Expotion  of  the  Creed  The 
Surgeons  mate  An  Essay  concerning  human  understand- 
ing a  Breife  Treatise  of  Testaments  The  Decameron  A 
Compendius  Dictionary  Lexicon  Manuale.  Lord  Delamers 
Works.  Sixteen  sermons  on  several  occasions  ffarquhars 
Works.  An  abridgment  of  all  the  Statutes  in  fforce  The 
standard  of  the  Quakers.  The  Hearts  Ease.  A  Tryal  of 
Faith  Several  Discourses  of  the  great  Duties  of  Natural 
Religion  The  Works  of  Josephus  in  three  Volumes  Doc- 
tor Reads  Works.  Abridgment  of  the  Statutes  of  King 
Wm.     Plutarchs  Morals.     Bethel  or  a   fform   for  ffamilys 

226 


The  Colonial  Caxalicr. 

Master    Ralph    Wormeley's    library    numbered 
several  hundred  volumes,  and  a  man  might  have 

Discourses  on  the  History  of  the  whole  world  of  wisdom 
the  second  and  third  books.     Mr.   John  Banisters  Works. 
The  History  of  flfrance     the  first  and  fourth  volumes  of  the 
turkish  spy    Sermons  on  several  occasions     resolutions  and 
devisions  of   Cases  of  Conscience     Plutarchs  Morals  the 
Second  Volume  and  the  third.     A  Manual  Anatomy     Eng- 
land's General  Description     Shakespears  Works.     Second 
Volume  of  Tom  Browns  Works     Copies  of  Certain  Letters. 
Ancient  and  the  pre.sent  State  of  the  Empire  of  Germany. 
The   Shepards  oracles.      Physoignomie   and    Chiromancy 
The  Genral  View  of  the  Holy  Scriptures    The  practice  of 
piety    The  great  law  of  consideration     Trigonometric     Of 
generosity  and  constancy  in  the  faith    The  History  of  the 
Revolutions  in  Sweeden     The  Marrow  of  Chyrurgery    Tol- 
eration discuss'd.     Letters  of  Remarkables  in  Switzerland 
The  office  of  Executors      a  Companion  for  aChyrurgeon 
The    Critick     The    Lively  Oracles     The  heaven  of  health 
The  history  of  the  Conquest  of  China    Valentine  and  Or- 
son,    a  Discourse  on  the  Sacraments    Some  Motives  to  the 
Love  of  God.     an  Introduction  to  the  Skill  of  Musick.     Ser- 
mons and  Discourses  some  of  which  never  before  printed. 
The  Nature  of  Truth  discuss'd    The  Method  of  physick 
The  new  London  Dispensatory,     a  Compendius  Dictionary 
Milk  for  Babes    an  Introduction  to  the  Eight  parts  of  Latin 
speech    The  use  of  piety     The  European  Mercury    The 
Books  of  psalms.     Notes  on  Mr.  Lockes  Essay  of  Human 
Understanding    Britains  Remembrancer   An  Infallible  way 
to  Contentment    a  view  of  all  the  religions  in  the  world    A 
Description  of  the  Little  world.     The  portraiture  of  his  sa- 
cred Maj'y  in  his  solitudes  and  suferings    The  London  Dis- 
pensatory   English    Examples    a    Short    Introduction    to 
Gramar    a  Short  Catechisrae    The  Esopps  ffables    Works 
of  M'  Tho'  Southerne     Eight  Lattiu  Books. 
227 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

found  enough  among  them  to  gratify  any  inclina- 
tion. If  his  tastes  were  frivolous,  here  were  "  fifty 
comodysand  tragedies,"  and  "  The  Genteel  Siner." 
Were  he  an  epicure,  he  might  regale  himself  with 
"the  body  of  cookery,"  and  revel  in  its  appetizing 
recipes  for  potpies  and  the  proper  method  of 
roasting  a  sucking  pig;  and  if  his  mind  were 
piously  inclined,  the  resources  of  the  library  were 
unlimited.  Side  by  side  on  its  shelves  stood  "  No 
Cross,  No  Crowne,"  "The  ffamous  Docf  Usher's 
Body  of  Divinity,"  Doct^  ffuller's  Holy  State," 
and  last  and  longest,  the  ninety-six  sermons  of  the 
good  parson  Andros. 

Some  of  these  old  colonial  sermons  came  to  an 
unprofitable  end.  A  bundle  of  them  was  laid  away 
in  a  drawer,  and,  when  sought  for,  it  was  learned 
that  they  had  been  torn  up  and  used  by  the  damsels 
of  the  household  as  curling-papers.  The  writer 
might  have  been  at  least  half-satisfied  in  the  re- 
flection that  his  discourses  had  touched  the  head, 
if  not  the  heart. 

In  spite  of  all  the  old  inventories  which  are  be- 
ing brougiit  to  light  to  show  the  existence  of  books 
and  book  lovers  in  the  South,  the  fact  remains  that 
the  Cavalier  was  no  bookworm.  He  felt  that  a  boy 
who  had  learned  to  ride,  to  shoot,  and  to  speak  the 
truth,  had  received  the  rudiments  at  least  of  edu- 
cation. Whatever  he  learned  more  than  this  was 
228 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

acquired  either  in  the  old  field-school  or  more  often 
from  a  private  tutor,  usually  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Some  attempts  were  made 
by  private  persons  to  found  public-schools.  In 
1634,  Benjamin  Sym  devised  two  hundred  acres  of 
land  on  the  Pocosan  River,  together  with  the  milk 
and  increase  of  eight  cows,  for  "  the  maintenance  of 
a  learned,  honest  man,  to  keep,  upon  the  said 
ground,  a  Free-School  for  the  education  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Elizabeth  City  and  Kiquotan,  from  Mary's 
Mount  downward  to  the  Pocosan  River." 

"  Richard  Russell  in  his  will  made  July  24th, 
1667,  and  proved  December  i6th,  the  same  year, 
now  among  the  records  of  Lower  Norfolk  county, 
declared:  'the  other  pte  of  my  Estate  I  give  & 
bequeath  One  pte  of  itt  unto  Six  of  the  poorest 
mens  Children  in  Eliz:  Riv'r,  to  pay  for  their 
Teaching  to  read  &  after  these  six  are  entred  then 
if  Six  more  comes  I  give  a  pte  allsoe  to  Enter 
them  in  like  manner. '  " 

In  spite  of  private  gifts,  and  individual  effort,  and 
public  Acts  of  Assembly,  the  school  system  of  New 
England  did  not  and  could  not  thrive  at  the  South, 
because  it  was  out  of  harmony  with  the  spirit  and  in- 
stitutions of  the  people.  The  plantations  were  so 
separated  that  any  assembling  of  the  children  was 
difficult,  the  spirit  of  caste  was  too  strong  to  encour- 
age the  free  mingling  of  rich  and  poor,  and  the  tradi- 
229 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

tions  of  the  Cavalier  were  not  traditions  of  scholar- 
ship. The  sword,  not  the  pen,  had  always  been 
the  weapon  of  the  gentleman.  Montrose,  and 
not  Milton,  was  his  hero.  When  Captain  Smith 
proudly  boasted  that  he  did  not  sit  mewed  up  in  a 
library  writing  of  other  men's  exploits,  but  that 
what  his  sword  did,  his  pen  writ,  he  expressed  the 
ideal  of  the  Colonial  Cavalier. 

"I  observe,"  quoth  Spotswood  ironically  to  the 
Virginia  Burgesses,  "  that  the  grand  ruling  party 
in  your  House  has  not  furnished  chairmen  of  two 
of  your  standing  committees  who  can  spell  Eng- 
lish or  write  common-sense,  as  the  grievances  un- 
der their  own  hand-writing  will  manifest." 

Ebenezer  Cook  in  his  "  Voyage  to  Maryland," 
writes  with  acrimonious  sarcasm  of  "  A  reverend 
judge  who,  to  the  shame  of  all  the  Bench,  could 
write  his  name."  The  jest  of  the  Sot-Weed  Fac- 
tor scarcely  outstripped  the  sober  truth,  and  a  cen- 
tury later  the  general  ignorance  was  almost  as 
dense.  Several  instances  are  on  record  where  the 
servant  signed  his  name  and  the  master  made  his 
mark.  The  cross  or  other  conventional  sign  was 
not  uncommon,  and  in  general  the  letters  of  the 
names  are  evolved  slowly  and  painfully,  as  by  men 
more  apt  with  the  gun  than  with  the  quill. 

Hugh  Jones,  a  Fellow  of  William  and  Mary 
College,   writes  of  his  countrymen  that,  for  the 

230 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

most  part,  they  are  only  desirous  of  learnint^  what 
is  absolutely  necessary,  in  the  shortest  way.  To 
meet  this  peculiarity  ]\Ir.  Jones  states  that  he  has 
designed  a  royal  road  to  learning,  consisting  of  a 
series  of  text-books  embracing  an  Accidence  to 
Christiamt}\  an  Accidence  to  the  Mat/iematicks,  and  an 
Accidence  to  the  English  Tongue.  This  last  is  "  for 
the  use  of  such  boys  and  men  as  have  never  learned 
Latin,  and  for  the  Benefit  of  the  Female  Sex." 

The  Bishop  of  London  addressed  a  circular  to 
the  Virginia  clergy  inquiring  as  to  the  condition 
of  their  parishes.  To  the  question,  "  Are  there  any 
schools  in  your  parish?"  the  almost  invariable  an- 
swer was:  "None."  To  the  question,  "Is  there 
any  parish  library?"  but  a  single  affirmative  re- 
sponse was  received.  One  minister  replied,  "  We 
have  the  The  Book  of  Homilies,  The  Whole  Duty  of 
Man,  and  The  Singing  Psalms." 

It  may  be  to  this  very  scarcity  of  books  that  we 
owe  that  originality  and  vigor  of  thought  which 
distinguished  the  leaders  of  the  Revolution.  Gov- 
ernor Page  reported  Patrick  Henry  as  saying  to 
him,  "  Naiteral  parts  is  better  than  all  the  larnin 
upon  yearth,"  and  when  to  naiteral  parts  we  add 
the  mastery  of  a  few  English  classics,  we  touch  the 
secret  of  the  dignity  and  virility  which  mark  the 
utterances  of  these  men  who  had  known  so  little 
school-training. 

231 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

Randolph  of  Roanoke,  the  youngest  son  of 
his  widowed  mother,  was  taught  by  her  as  a 
little  child.  As  he  grew  older  he  was  left  a  good 
deal  to  his  own  devices,  but  his  mind  was  not  idle, 
and  he  had  access  to  an  unusually  good  library. 
Before  he  was  ten,  he  had  read  Voltaire's  "  History 
of  Charles  XII.,"  "  Reynard  the  Fox,"  and  odd  vol- 
umes of  The  Spectator.  The  "  Arabian  Nights"  and 
Shakespeare  were  his  delight.  "  I  had  read  them, " 
he  writes,  "with  Don  Quixote,  Quintus  Curtius, 
Plutarch,  Pope's  Homer,  Robinson  Crusoe,  Gulli- 
ver, Tom  Jones,  Orlando  Furioso,  and  Thomson's 
Seasons,  before  I  was  eleven  years  old." 

Washington,  unlike  most  of  his  compeers,  was 
sent  to  school,  first  in  the  little  cabin  taught  by 
the  sexton  of  the  church,  a  man  named  Hobby, 
and  afterward  to  a  more  advanced  school  taught  by 
a  Mr.  Williams.  Here  he  decorated  his  writing 
and  ciphering  books,  school-boy  fashion,  with  non- 
descript birds  done  in  pen-flourishes,  and  with  ama- 
teur profile  portraits.  Here  also  he  copied  legal 
forms,  bills  of  exchange,  bonds,  etc.,  till  he  ac- 
quired that  methodical  habit  which  afterward 
stood  him  in  good  stead.  There  were  good  and 
faithful  teachers  in  those  days,  though  they  were 
not  too  common.  The  vScotch  seem  to  have  done 
most  of  the  teaching  in  the  colonies,  and  to  have 
done  it  well.  Jefferson  recalls  the  "mouldy  pies 
232 


The  Colcjnial  Ca\alier. 

and  good  teaching"  of  the  .Scotch  minister  who 
taught  him  the  languages;  and  many  a  Scotch 
name  figures  in  the  list  of  parish  school-teachers. 

In  an  old  file  of  the  Maryland  Gazette  we  may- 
read  the  advertisement  of  John  and  Sally  Stott, 
who  propose  to  open  a  school  "where  English, 
arithmetic,  book-keeping,  mensuration,  knitting, 
sewing  and  sample-work  on  cat-gut  and  muslin 
are  to  be  taught  in  an  easy  and  intelligible  man- 
ner," 

The  charges  for  schooling  were  not  extravagant. 
The  Reverend  Devereux  Jarratt  taught  a  "plain 
school"  for  the  equivalent  of  about  thirty-three 
dollars  a  year.  A  tutor  from  London  received  a 
salary  of  thirty  pounds  sterling,  and  Jonathan 
Boucher  charged  for  tuition  twenty-five  pounds  a 
year,  "  the  boy  to  bring  his  own  bed." 

Boucher  was  at  one  time  tutor  to  Parke  Custis. 
then  a  somewhat  headstrong  boy  of  sixteen. 
Young  Custis  wished  to  travel  abroad  with  his 
tutor,  but  Washington  wrote  to  j\lr.  Boucher:  "I 
can  not  help  giving  it  as  my  opinion  that  his  edu- 
cation is  by  no  means  ripe  enough  for  a  travelling 
tour.  Not  that  I  think  his  becoming  a  mere  scholar 
is  a  desirable  education  for  a  gentleman,  but  I 
conceive  a  knowledge  of  books  is  the  basis  upon 
which  all  other  knowledge  is  to  be  built,  and  in 
travelling  he  is  to  become  acquainted  with  men 
233 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

and  things  rather  than  books. "  Later  in  the  letter 
he  adds :  "  It  is  to  be  expected  that  every  man  who 
travels  with  a  view  of  observing  the  laws  and  cus- 
toms of  other  countries  should  be  able  to  give 
some  description  of  the  situation  and  government 
of  his  own. " 

Boucher  took  just  the  opposite  ground  from  his 
patron.  He  argued  that  the  best  education  con- 
sisted in  mingling  with  men  and  seeing  the  cul- 
ture of  other  lands.  He  lamented  the  provinciality 
of  Virginia  and  its  lack  of  intercourse  with  the 
great  world.  "  Saving  here  and  there  a  needy 
emigrant  from  Great  Britain,  an  illiterate  captain 
of  a  ship,  or  a  subaltern  merchant,  to  whom,"  he 
asks,  "  can  a  Virginia  youth  apply  for  a  specimen 
of  the  manners,  etc.,  of  any  other  people?" 

The  majority  of  the  landed  gentry  were  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  views  of  Boucher  rather  than  with 
those  of  Washington.  Travel  and  education 
abroad,  especially  in  England,  were  universally 
desired,  and  the  influence  on  the  colonies  was 
marked,  as  the  lad  brought  back  with  him  from 
Oxford  the  views  of  the  Cavaliers  and  their  descen- 
dants, as  the  ship  which  bore  him  brought  back  the 
carved  furniture,  the  massive  plate,  the  leather- 
bound  books,  the  coat  of  arms,  and  the  panels  for 
the  hall  fireplace. 

The  record  of  matriculations  at  Oxford  contains 
234 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

many  colonial  names.  Here  is  "  Henry  Fitzhugh, 
s.  William,  of  Virginia,  Gent."  (Christ  Church) 
matriculated  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  Christopher 
and  Peter  Robinson,  and  Robert  Yates,  set  down 
as  iroYCi.  "  Jfisu/a  J'irgi/iiu',"  register  at  Oriel,  and 
Lewis  Biirwell  at  Balliol.  The  average  age  of 
matriculation  among  these  colonial  youth  is  eigh- 
teen ;  but  boys  were  often  sent  to  England,  or 
"home,"  as  the  colonists  delighted  to  call  it, 
long  before  they  were  old  enough  for  University 
life. 

Governor  Spotswood's  grandsons  were  sent  over 
seas  to  Eton  by  their  guardian.  Colonel  Moore, 
their  father  being  dead.  They  boarded  with  a 
Mrs.  Young,  who  showed  a  wonderfully  good  and 
tender  heart,  for  when  their  guardian  ceased  to 
send  remittances  and  the  poor  boys  were  left  with- 
out resources,  this  kind  landlady  not  only  re- 
mitted the  price  of  their  board,  which  with  charges 
for  candles,  fire  and  mending  amotmted  to  over 
twenty-eight  pounds  sterling,  but  actually  supplied 
them  with  pocket-money  to  the  extent  of  three 
pounds,  and  paid  the  expenses  of  "salt  money, 
cost  of  montem  poles,  and  montem  dinner." 
When  they  left,  Alexander  wrote  from  London  to 
their  benefactress  a  manlvif  somev/hat  prim  little 
letter,  commencing:  "Hon''  Madam.  I  write  by 
this  opportunity  to  thank  you  for  all  your  past 
235 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

favors  to  me  and  my  brother.  I  hope  it  will  be  in 
my  power  one  day  or  another  to  make  you  amends 
for  all  you  have  done  for  us,"  and  signing  him- 
self, "Your  humble  servant,  Alexander  Spots- 
wood."  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  these  protes- 
tations did  not  come  to  naught,  but  that  the  good 
lady  was  repaid,  not  only  in  mone}^  but  in  the  life- 
long gratitude  of  the  boys,  who  became  distin- 
guished American  citizens. 

The  inheritance  of  a  high  and  quick  spirit  came 
fairly  to  the  boys  of  their  race.  vSome  quarter  of 
a  century  before  this  letter  was  written,  the  Vir- 
ginia Gazette  printed  a  communication  from  the 
father  of  these  lads,  then  himself  a  boy.  It  is 
headed  "An  Hint  for  a  Hint,"  and  rims: 

"Mr.  Parks, 

"  I  have  learnt  my  Book,  so  far  as  to  be  able  to 
read  plain  English,  when  printed  in  your  Papers, 
and  finding  in  one  of  them  my  Papa's  name  often 
mentioned  by  a  scolding  man  called  Edwin  Con- 
way, I  asked  my  Papa  whether  he  did  not  design 
to  answer  him.  But  he  replyd:  'No  child,  this 
is  a  better  Contest  for  you  that  are  a  school  Boy, 
for  it  will  not  become  me  to  answer  every  Fool 
in  his  Folly,  as  the  Lesson  you  learned  the  other 
day  of  the  Lion  and  the  Ass  may  teach  you.' 
This  Hint  being  given  me,  I  copied  out  the  said 
236 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

Lesson  and  now  send  you  the  same  for  my  Answer 
to  Mr.  Conway's  Hint  from 

"  Sir,  your  Humble  Servant 
"John  Spotswood. 

"Fab.    lo.   A  Lion  and  an  Ass. 

"  An  Ass  was  so  hardy  once  as  to  fall  a  Mopping 
and  Braying  at  a  Lion.  The  Lion  began  at  first 
to  shew  his  Teeth  and  to  stomach  the  Affront, 
But  upon  second  Thoughts,  Well,  says  he,  Jeer 
on  and  be  an  Ass  still,  take  notice  only  by  the 
way,  that  it  is  the  Baseness  of  your  Character 
that  has  saved  your  Carcass." 

No  doubt  young  John  and  Alexander  treasured 
this  piece  of  youthful  audacity  as  a  precious  tradi- 
tion to  be  told  and  retold  to  admiring  school- 
mates at  Montem  dinner,  under  the  shadow  of 
Eton  Towers. 

In  the  Bland  letters,  there  is  an  itemized  account 
of  the  charges  for  a  colonial  boy  at  boarding  school. 
Master  Bland's  expenses,  when  under  the  tuition  of 
Mr.  Clark,  amounted  to  twenty-four  pounds,  ten 
shillings  and  two  pence,  and  include  the  bills 
sent  in  by  the  apothecary,  hosier,  linen-draper, 
music-master  and  "  taylor,"  and  also  the  charges 
for  "  weekly  allowance  and  lent,  shugar  and  black- 
shoe. " 

The  charge  for  shugar  is  twelve  shillings  and 
237 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

ninepence,  which  seems  exorbitant  in  our  day  of 
cheap  sweets.  Master  Bland's  second  half-year's 
account  charges  for  "  milliner,  board,  coal  and  can- 
dles, pocket-money  and  stockener. " 

There  is  no  record  of  the  profit  Master  Bland 
received  from  his  schooling  abroad,  but  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  he  shared  the  character  of  his  5^oung 
fellow-countrymen,  of  whom  Jones  reports  that 
"  they  are  noted  to  be  more  apt  to  spoil  their 
school-fellows  than  improve  themselves."  The 
wildness  of  the  young  colonial  students  this  rev- 
erend apologist  accounts  for  very  ingeniously,  by 
explaining  that  the  trouble  lies  in  their  being  "put 
to  learn  to  persons  that  know  little  of  their  temper, 
who  keep  them  drudging  in  pedantick  methods, 
too  tedious  for  their  volatile  genius." 

The  young  Colonial  Cavaliers  exercised  their 
volatile  genius  2X\iOVCiQ.  as  well  as  abroad,  as  any  one 
may  know  who  turns  the  yellow  pages  of  the  man- 
uscript college  records  at  William  and  Mary.  Un- 
der Stith's  presidency  we  find  "  Y«  following  or- 
ders unanimously  agreed  to" : 

"  I.  Ordered  y'  no  scholar  belonging  to  any 
school  in  the  college,  of  what  age,  rank  or  quality 
so  ever,  do  keep  any  race  horse  at  y<=  college  in  y'^ 
town,  or  anywhere  in  the  neighborhood,  y*  they 
be  not  anyway  concerned  in  making  races  or  in 
backing  or  abetting  those  made  by  others,  and  y* 
238 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

all  race-horses  kept  in  y*  neighborhood  of  y^  col- 
lege and  belonging  to  any  of  y®  scholars,  be 
immediately  dispatched  and  sent  off  and  never 
again  brought  back,  and  all  this  imder  pain  of  y^ 
severest  animadversion  and  punishment." 

A  second  ordinance  forbids  any  scholar  belong- 
ing to  the  college,  "  to  appear  playing  or  betting 
at  y"  billiard  or  other  gaming  tables,  or  to  be  any 
way  concerned  in  keeping  or  fighting  cocks,  under 
pain  of  y®  like  severe  animadversions  or  punish- 
ments." 

They  were  an  unruly  and  turbulent  set  of  school- 
boys, these  collegians,  and  the  college  records  are 
full  of  their  misdoings.  Thomas  Byrd,  being 
brought  before  the  Faculty  on  a  charge  of  break- 
ing windows  "  in  a  rude  and  riotous  mannor, "  was 
sentenced  to  submit  to  a  whipping  in  the  Gram- 
mar-School,  or  be  expelled  the  college.  The  blood 
of  the  Byrds  rebelled  against  such  ignominy,  and 
the  boy  refused  to  submit.  His  father  then 
appeared  before  the  Faculty  and  offered  to  compel 
him  to  obey,  but  this  vicarious  submission  was 
considered  inadequate,  and  he  was  dropped  from 
the  college.  Again,  it  appears,  that  "whereas 
John  Hyde  Saunders  has  lately  behaved  himself 
in  a  very  impudent  and  unheard-of  mannor  to  the 
master  of  the  Grammar-School,"  he  is  directed  to 
quit  the  college.  The  ushers  are  ordered  to  visit 
239 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

the  rooms  of  the  young  gentlemen  at  least  three 
times  a  week,  after  nine  o'clock  at  night, and  report 
to  the  president  any  irregularities. 

"No  boy  to  presume  to  go  into  the  kitchen." 
"  No  victuals  sent  to  private  rooms. "  "  No  boy  to 
lounge  upon  the  college  steps."  So  run  the  rules. 
They  further  provide  "  y*-  a  person  be  appointed 
to  hear  such  boys  as  shall  be  recommended  by 
their  parents  or  guardians,  a  chapter  in  the  Bible 
every  school-day  at  12  o'clock,  and  y*  he  have  y^ 
yearly  salary  of  one  pistole  for  each  boy  so  recom- 
mended." All  these  regulations,  "animadver- 
sions," and  punishments  make  us  realize  that  in 
spite  of  its  high-sounding  charter,  William  and 
Mary  was,  after  all,  only  a  big  boarding-school. 

When  its  charter  was  granted,  a  curious  condi- 
tion was  attached,  providing  that  the  president  and 
professors  should  yearly  offer  two  copies  of  Latin 
verses  to  the  Governor  or  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
Virginia.  The  bargain  seems  to  have  been  strictly 
kept,  for  The  Gazette  records: 

"  On  this  day  s'e'n-night,  the  president,  masters 
and  scholars  of  William  and  Mary  College  went, 
according  to  their  annual  custom,  in  a  body  to  the 
Governor's,  to  present  His  Honor  with  two  copies 
of  Latin  verses  in  obedience  to  their  charter,  as 
a  grateful  acknowledgement  for  two  valuable  tracts 
of  land  given  the  said  college  by  their  late  Majes- 
240 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

ties,  King  William  and  Queen  Mary.  Mr  Presi- 
dent delivered  the  verses  to  His  Honor  and  two  of 
the  young  gentlemen  spoke  them." 

In  1700,  the  college  authorities  ushered  in  the 
century  with  a  grand  celebration,  including  prize 
declamations  and  various  exercises.  The  novel 
and  exciting  entertainment  roused  such  an  inter- 
est that  visitors  came  from  Annapolis  and  the 
Maryland  shore,  and  even  from  the  far-away  col- 
ony of  New  York,  while  Indians  thronged  the 
streets  to  watch  the  gayety.  The  town  then  was 
at  the  height  of  its  prosperity. 

Not  content  with  a  palace,  a  capitol,  and  a  col- 
lege, Williamsburg  actually  aspired  to  own  a  book- 
store, which  was  after  all  not  altogether  unreason- 
able, since  there  was  no  considerable  one  south 
of  Boston.  Accordingly  the  college  authorities 
met  to  consider  the  matter,  and  finally  resolved 
that— 

"  M''  W"'  Parks  intending  to  open  a  book-seller's 
shop  in  this  Town,  and  having  proposed  to  furnish 
the  students  of  this  College  with  such  books  at  a 
reasonable  price  as  the  Masters  shall  direct  him 
to  send  for,  and  likewise  to  take  all  the  school- 
books  now  in  the  College  and  pay  35  p.  cent  on  the 
sterling  cost  to  make  it  currency,  his  proposals 
are  unanimously  agreed  to." 

The  first  building  of  William  and  Mary  College 
241 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

was  planned,  so  they  say,  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
but  it  was  burned  down,  one  night  only  five  years 
after  the  grand  celebration,  "  the  governor  and 
all  the  gentlemen  in  town  coming  to  the  lament- 
able spectacle ;  many  of  them  getting  out  of  their 
beds."  Again  and  again  the  building  has  suffered 
from  the  flames.  Yet  as  it  stands  there  to-day — 
with  its  stiff,  straight  walls  stained  and  weather- 
beaten,  its  bricks  laid  up  in  the  good  old  English 
fashion  of  stretchers  and  headers,  its  steps  worn 
with  the  tread  of  generations — it  is  full  of  a  pensive 
charm.  Its  record  is  one  for  Virginians  to  be 
proud  of,  since  as  one  of  them  boasts; 

"  It  has  sent  out  for  their  work  in  the  world 
twenty-seven  soldiers  of  the  Revolution,  two 
attorney-generals,  nearly  twenty  members  of  Con- 
gress, fifteen  senators,  seventeen  governors,  thirty- 
seven  judges,  a  lieutenant-general,  two  commo- 
dores, twelve  professors,  four  signers  of  the 
Declaration,  seven  cabinet  officers,  a  chief  justice, 
and  three  presidents  of  the  United  States." 

If  I  was  tempted  at  first,  as  I  stood  before  the 
brick,  barn-like  building,  to  exclaim  at  its  ugli- 
ness, my  frivolous  criticism  was  abashed,  as  this 
phantom  procession  filed  through  its  doorway,  for 
I  too,  who  am  not  of  their  blood,  claim  a  share  in 
their  greatness,  and  salute  their  names  with  rev- 
erent humility. 

242 


LAWS,  PUNISHMENTS,  AND 
POLITICS 


L^ws ,  PuNisHMENTs\aW  Politics. 


T  is  a  far  cry  from  Patrick  Henry, 
pouring  out  defiance  against  the 
_  king,  while  his  listeners  as 

''^^^  one  man  echoed  his  final 
words,  "  Liberty  or  death  I" 
back  to  the  night  of  the  arrival  of  the  English 
ships  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  when  the  box  given 
under  the  royal  seal  was  opened,  and  the  names 
of  the  council  who  were  to  govern  Virginia  were 
found  within.  It  would  have  seemed  to  the  group 
of  men  standing  about  the  sacred  casket  on  that 
April  night  incredible  that,  within  their  prov- 
ince of  Virginia  in  the  next  century,  the  authority 
of  the  king  and  the  power  of  all  England  should  be 
openly  and  successfully  set  at  defiance.  Yet  so  it 
came  to  pass,  naturally,  gradually  and  inevitably. 
The  first  settlers  in  Virginia  lived  in  a  political 
condition  which  may  be  described  as  a  commu- 
nism, subject  to  a  despotism.  Their  goods  were 
held  in  a  common  stock,  and  they  drew  their  ra- 
tions from  "  a  common  kettel, "  but  all  the  time  they 
felt  the  strong  arm  of  royal  authority  stretched 
across  the  Atlantic,  to  rule  their  affairs  with- 
out consent  of  the  governed.  Both  commu- 
245 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

nism  and  despotism  worked  badly  for  the  settlers. 
The  first  promoted  idleness,  the  second  encouraged 
dissensions,  discontent  and  tale-bearing,  each  party 
to  a  Colonial  quarrel  being  eager  to  be  the  first  to 
run  home  and  lay  his  side  of  the  story  before  the 
King.  Sir  Thomas  Dale  changed  all  this  commu- 
nistic living.  "  When  our  people  were  fed  out  of 
the  common  store,"  writes  one  of  the  earliest  set- 
tlers, "  glad  was  he  who  could  slip  from  his  labor,  or 
slumber  over  his  taske  he  cared  not  how ;  nay,  the 
most  honest  among  them  would  hardly  take  so 
much  true  paines  in  a  weeke,  as  now  for  themselves 
they  will  doe  in  a  day,  neither  cared  they  for  the 
increase,  presuming  that  howsoever  the  harvest 
prospered,  the  generall  store  must  maintain  them, 
so  that  wee  reaped  not  so  much  corne  from  the 
labours  of  thirtie,  as  now  three  or  foure  doe  pro- 
vide for  themselves. " 

Dale  allotted  to  every  man  three  acres  of  ground, 
and  compelled  each  to  work  both  for  himself  and 
for  the  public  store.  His  rule  was,  on  the  whole, 
beneficent  though  arbitrary ;  but  the  settlers  con- 
stantly suffered  from  the  lack  of  power  to  make 
laws,  or  arrange  their  simplest  affairs  without 
seeking  permission  from  king  and  council. 

Fortunately,  after  a  few  years  a  radical  change 
was  wrought;   a  change  whose  importance  cannot 
be  overestimated.     In   1619  Sir  George  Yeardley 
246 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

came  over  as  Governor  of  Virginia.  He  pro- 
claimed that  "those  cruel  laws  by  v^'hich  the 
Ancient  Planters  had  so  long  been  governed" 
were  now  done  away  with,  and  henceforth  they 
were  to  be  ruled  by  English  law,  like  all  other 
English  subjects.  Nor  was  this  all.  Shortly 
after,  followed  one  of  those  epoch-making  decla- 
rations which  posterity  always  wonders  not  to 
find  printed  in  italics:  "That  the  planters  might 
have  a  hande  in  the  governing  of  themselves,  yt 
was  grannted  that  a  general  assemblic  shoulde  be 
helde  yearly  once,  whereat  were  to  be  present,  the 
governor  and  counsell,  with  two  burgesses  from 
each  plantation,  freely  to  be  elected  by  the  inhabi- 
tants thereof,  this  assemblieto  have  power  to  make 
and  ordaine  whatsoever  lawes  and  orders  should 
by  them  be  thought  good  and  profitable  for  their 
subsistence." 

Thus  the  same  year  and  almost  the  same  month 
witnessed  two  events  of  deep  significance  to  Vir- 
ginia, the  purchase  of  the  first  African  slaves,  and 
the  establishment  of  the  first  free  Assembly  in 
America.  So  strangely  are  the  threads  of  destiny 
blended !  And  thus,  while  the  strife  between  king 
and  people  was  just  beginning  to  cast  its  shadow 
over  England,  there  was  quietly  inaugurated  here 
at  James  City  a  government  essentially  "  of  the 
people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people." 
247 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

The  measures  they  adopted  at  this  first  free  As- 
sembly, the  laws  they  made,  the  punishments  they 
imposed,  are  of  little  importance.  The  fact  of 
mighty  moment  is  that  they  met,  and  though  the 
scope  of  their  power  was  limited,  to  be  extended 
two  years  later,  and  though  they  were  afterward 
to  struggle  on  through  varying  fortunes  to  the 
heights  of  entire  freedom,  yet  this  Assembly  of 
1619  was  forever  to  be  memorable  as  the  germ  of 
representative  government  on  this  continent. 

In  the  Quire  of  the  old  brick  church,  these  Bur- 
gesses gathered,  twenty-two  of  them,  from  James 
City,  Charles  City,  Henrico,  Kiccowtan  (now 
Hampton),  Martin-Brandon,  Smythe's  Hundred, 
Martin's  Hundred,  Argall's  Gift,  Lawne's  Planta- 
tion, Ward's  Plantation,  and  Flowerda  Hundred. 
First,  led  by  Parson  Bucke,  they  asked  God's  guid- 
ance ;  and  on  the  principle  that  heaven  helps  those 
who  help  themselves,  they  then  set  themselves  to 
the  task  of  framing  laws  to  take  the  place  of  the 
"  Iron  Code"  which  Sir  Thomas  Dale  had  brought 
over  from  the  Netherlands,  and  which  strongly 
suggested  the  methods  of  the  Inquisition. 

Dale's  code  declared  absence  from  Sunday  ser- 
vices a  capital  offense.  One  guilty  of  blasphemy 
a  second  time,  was  sentenced  to  have  a  bodkin 
thrust  through  his  tongue.  A  Mr.  Barnes,  of  Ber- 
muda Hundred,  having  uttered  a  detracting  speech 
248 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

against  a  worthy  gentleman  in  Dale's  time,  was 
condemned  to  have  his  tongue  rim  through  with 
an  awl,  to  pass  through  a  guard  of  forty  men,  and 
to  be  butted  by  every  one  of  them,  and  at  the  head 
of  the  troop,  knocked  down,  and  footed  out  of  the 
fort.  A  woman  found  guilty  as  a  common  scold, 
was  sentenced  to  be  ducked  three  times  from  a  ship 
in  the  James  River,  and  one  mild  statute  declared 
that  any  person  speaking  disgraceful  words  of 
any  person  in  the  colony,  should  be  tied,  hand 
and  foot  together,  upon  the  ground,  every  night 
for  the  space  of  one  month.  It  must  be  said  in 
excuse  for  the  severities  of  Dale  that  he  had  a  tur- 
bulent mob  to  discipline.  He  himself  describes 
them  as  gathered  in  riotous  or  infected  places, 
persons  "so  profane,  of  so  riotous  and  treasonable 
intendments,  that  in  a  parcel  of  three  hundred, 
not  many  gave  testimony  beside  their  name,  that 
they  were  Christians."  Another  point  to  be  re- 
membered in  defence  of  this  iron  soldier,  is  that 
all  punishments  in  those  days  were  such  as  would 
seem  to  us  cruel  and  unwarrantable  in  proportion 
to  the  offence.  The  gallows  in  London  was  never 
idle.  Almost  everj'  crime  was  capital.  I  read  in 
the  story  of  the  Virginia  adventurers  in  the  Somer 
lies  of  a  desperate  fellow  who,  "  being  to  be  ar- 
raigned for  stealing  a  Turky,  rather  than  he  would 
endure  his  triall,  secretly  conveighed  himself  to  sea 
249 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

in  a  little  boat,  and  never  since  was  heard  of."  I 
feel  very  confident  that  this  poor  "  Turky"-stealer 
would  never  have  tempted  those  stormy  waters 
in  a  skiff,  had  he  not  known  full  well  that  a  worse 
fate  than  drowning  awaited  him,  if  he  stayed  to 
stand  his  trial. 

The  laws  introduced  by  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses were  strict  enough,  and  their  punishments 
sufficiently  severe.  The  statutes  enacted  against 
"  idlenesse"  were  so  salutary  that  they  would  soon 
have  exterminated  such  a  social  pest  as  the  modern 
tramp.  The  law  went  even  further  than  for- 
bidding idleness,  and  undertook  to  discipline  those 
guilty  of  any  neglect  of  duty.  Thomas  Garnett, 
who  was  accused  by  his  master  of  wanton  and 
profligate  conduct,  "  and  extreame  neglect  of  his 
busineffe"  was  condemned  "  to  stand  fower  dayes 
with  his  eares  nayled  to  the  Pillory,  and  that  he, 
every  of  those  fower  days,  should  be  publiquely 
whipped." 

The  humiliation  of  the  criminal  was  the  special 
end  and  aim  of  the  punishment.  Richard  Buck- 
land,  for  writing  a  slanderous  song  concerning 
Ann  Smith,  was  ordered  to  stand  at  the  church- 
door  during  service  with  a  paper  round  his  hat, 
inscribed  "  I?n?nicHS  Libeilus,"  and  afterward  to  ask 
forgiveness  of  God,  and  also  in  particular  of  the 
defamed  Ann  Smith.  Two  convicted  sinners  were 
250 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

sentenced  to  stand  in  church  with  white  sheets 
round  their  shoulders  and  white  wands  in  their 
hands. 

Throughout  the  century,  the  statute-books  of 
Virginia  and  Maryland  show  a  vindictiveness 
toward  criminals  which  is  out  of  accord  with  the 
degree  of  civilization  existing  in  the  colonies. 
The  crime  of  hog-stealing  is  visited  with  special 
retributions.  It  is  enacted  by  the  Maryland  As- 
sembly that  any  person  convicted  as  a  hog-stealer 
"  shall  for  the  first  offence  stand  in  the  pillory  att 
the  Provincial  Court  four  Compleat  Hours,  &  shall 
have  his  eares  cropt,  &  pay  treble  damages;  &  for 
the  second  time,  the  offender  shall  be  stigmatized 
in  the  forehead  with  the  letter  H,  and  pay  treble 
damages;  and  for  the  third  offence  of  Hogg  steal- 
ing, he  or  they  so  offending  shall  be  adjudged  as 
fellons.  And  the  Delinquent  shall  have  noe  Bene- 
fite  of  Clergy."  In  another  note  in  the  Maryland 
archives  I  find:  "Putt  to  the  Vote.  Whither  a 
Law  bee  not  necessary  Prohibiting  Negros  or 
any  other  servants  to  keepe  piggs,  hoggs,  or  any 
other  sort  of  Swyne  uppon  any  pretence  what- 
soever." 

Hog-stealing  seems  to  have  ranked  next  to  mur- 
der as  an  offence,  and  to  have  been  punished  almost 
as  severely — perhaps  on  Shylock's  principle,  that 
they  took  life  who  took  the  means  of  livelihood ; 
253 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

and  the  hog  in  the  early  days  was  the  chief  wealth 
and  maintenance  of  the  settler. 

Superstition,  as  well  as  cruelty,  played  its  part 
in  the  old  criminal  processes.  The  blood-ordeal 
long  survived,  and  the  belief  was  general  that  a 
corpse  would  bleed  beneath  the  murderer's  touch. 
On  one  occasion,  when  a  serving-woman  in  Mary- 
land had  died  under  suspicious  circumstances,  her 
fellow-servants  were  summoned  one  by  one  to  lay 
hands  on  the  corpse ;  but  as  no  blood  appeared  be- 
neath their  touch,  the  jury  declared  the  woman's 
death  to  be  the  act  of  God. 

On  the  whole,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Southern 
Colonies,  excepting  always  the  negroes,  were  sin- 
gularly free  from  superstition.  The  witchcraft 
delusion,  which  played  such  havoc  in  New  Eng- 
land, never  obtained  a  foothold  in  the  Cavalier 
Colonies.  Grace  Sherwood  was,  it  is  true,  accused 
in  Princess  Anne  County  of  being  a  witch,  and  sen- 
tenced to  the  test  of  sinking  or  floating  when 
thrown  into  the  water;  but  her  case  stands  out 
quite  alone  in  the  annals  of  Virginia,  whereas  the 
same  county  records  show  several  suits  against 
accusers  as  defamers  of  character.  Here  we  find 
"Jn°  Byrd  and  Anne  his  wife  suing  Jn"^  Pites" 
in  an  action  of  Defamation ;  their  petition  sets 
forth  "  that  the  Defend'  had  falsely  &  Scandalously 
Defamed  them,  saying  they  had  rid  him  along  the 
254 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

sea-side  Sc  home  to  his  own  house,  b}'  which  kind 
of  Discourse  they  were  Reported  &  rendered  as  if 
they  were  witches,  or  in  league  with  the  Devill, 
praying  loo^  sterl.  Damage  with  cost.  The  Deft, 
for  answer  acknowledgeth  that  to  his  thoughts, 
apprehension  or  best  knowledge  they  did  serve  him 
soe."  The  jury  found  for  the  defendant,  but 
brought  no  action  against  the  witches  who  did 
serve  him  so. 

In  lower  Norfolk  County  the  defamer  did  not  es- 
cape so  easily,  for"  Whereas  Ann  Godby,  the  Wife 
of  Tho.  Godby  hath  contrary  to  an  ord''  of  y''  Court 
bearing  date  in  May  1655,  concerning  some  slan- 
ders &  scandalls  cast  upon  women  under  y^  notion 
of  witches,  hath  contemptuously  acted  in  abusing 
&  Taking  y*"  good  name  &  Credit  of  nic"  Robin- 
son's wife,  terming  her  a  witche,  as  by  severall 
deposicons  appeares.  It  is  therefore  ord'"  that  y® 
s*^  Tho.  Goodby  shall  pay  three  hundred  pounds  of 
Tob"&  Caske  fine  for  her  contempt  of  y^  menconed 
order  (being  y*-'  first  time)  &  also  pay  &  defray  y*' 
cost  of  sute  together  w*''  y"  Witnesses'  charges  at 
twenty  pounds  tob°  p  day." 

Maryland,  too,  may  boast  of  an  unstained  record, 
and  of  a  vigorous  warfare  against  the  persecution. 
An  old  record  tells  how  John  Washington,  Esquire, 
of  Westmoreland  County,  in  Virginia,  having  made 
complaint  against  Edward  Prescott,  merchant, 
255 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

"Accusin  s*"  Prescott  of  ffelony  under  the  Gov- 
ernm*  of  this  Province  (/.  e.  Maryland)  Alleaging 
how  that  hee,  the  s'^  Prescott,  hanged  a  Witch  on 
his  ship  as  hee  was  outward  bound  from  England 
hither  the  last  yeare.  Uppon  w'*'  complaynt  of  the 
s''  Washington,  the  Gov'"  caused  the  s"^  Edward 
Prescott  to  bee  arrested."  Prescott  admitted  that 
one  Elizabeth  Richardson  was  hanged  on  his  ship, 
outward  bound  from  England,  but  claimed  that 
John  Greene,  being  the  master  of  the  vessel,  was 
responsible,  and  not  he.  "  Whereupon  (standing 
upon  his  Justificaon)  Proclamacaon  was  made  by 
the  Sheriffe  in  these  very  words.  O  yes,  &c.  Ed- 
ward Prescott  Prisoner  at  the  Bar  uppon  suspition 
of  ffelony  stand  uppon  his  acquittall.  If  anj^  person 
can  give  evidence  against  him,  left  him  come  in, 
for  the  Prisoner  otherwise  will  be  acquitt.  And 
noe  one  appearing,  the  Prisoner  is  acquitted  b}'  the 
Board."  Yet,  though  there  is  not  a  single  con- 
viction of  witchcraft  to  stain  the  legal  records 
of  Maryland,  her  statute-book  in  1639  declared 
sorcery,  blasphemy  and  idolatry  punishable  with 
death ;  accessories  before  the  fact  to  be  treated 
as  principals.  The  accusation  of  blasphemy  or 
idolatry  was  always  a  serious  one,  and  the  more  so 
on  account  of  its  vagueness.  Scant  proof  was  re- 
quired, and  the  punishment  was  severe. 

A  Virginia  article  of  war  enacted  that  swearing 
256 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

or  drunkenness  among  the  soldiery,  at  the  third 
offense  be  punished  by  riding  the  wooden-horse 
for  an  hour,  with  a  musket  tied  to  each  foot,  and 
by  asking  forgiveness  at  the  next  meeting  for 
prayer  and  preaching.  This  sentence  requiring 
the  offender  to  ask  forgiveness  is  very  common  in 
the  pages  of  the  statute  books  as  a  sequel  to  the  in- 
fliction of  punishment.  Punishment  was  still  dis- 
ciplinary. Society  was  a  pedagogue  and  the 
criminal  a  naughty  school-boy,  who  must  go  down 
on  his  knees  in  a  proper  state  of  humility  before 
he  can  be  pardoned. 

After  Bacon's  Rebellion,  the  rebels  were  sen- 
tenced to  go  through  this  form  of  begging  forgive- 
ness with  a  halter  round  the  neck,  as  a  symbol  of 
the  right  of  the  Governor  to  hang  them  all  if  he 
saw  fit.  One  William  Potts,  being  of  a  haughty 
spirit,  or  perhaps  possessed  of  a  grim  sense  of  hu- 
mor, wore  round  his  neck  instead  of  the  hempen 
halter,  "a  Manchester  binding,"  otherwise  a  piece 
of  tape.  But  the  jest,  if  jest  it  were,  was  not  ap- 
parently appreciated  by  the  authorities,  for  it 
appears  that  the  Sheriff  was  straightway  deputed 
to  see  "  that  said  Potts  performe  the  Law, "  On  the 
whole,  the  "said  Potts"  must  have  thought  himself 
fortunate,  for  trifling  with  magistrates  was  sternly 
dealt  with  in  his  day,  and  answering  back  by  no 
means  tolerated. 

257 


The  Colonial  Ca\alier. 

From  the  times  of  Dale  onward,  a  great  many 
statutes  were  enacted,  designed  to  silence  women's 
tongues.  An  old  Virginia  law  runs:  "Whereas 
oftentimes  many  brabling  women  often  slander 
and  scandalize  their  neighbors,  for  which  their 
poore  husbands  are  often  brought  into  charge- 
able and  vexatious  suits  and  cast  in  great  damages, " 
it  is  enacted  that  all  women  found  guilty  of  the 
above  offence  be  sentenced  to  ducking.  The  pun- 
ishment was  undoubtedly  successful  for  the  time — 
that  is,  while  the  criminal  was  underwater;  but  it 
is  hard  to  believe  that  bad  tempers  or  gossiping 
habits  were  permanently  cured  by  the  ducking- 
stool.  This  curious  implement  of  discipline  may 
still  be  seen  in  the  old  prints.  It  consists  of  a 
chair  bound  to  the  end  of  a  long  board,  which, 
when  released  on  the  land  side,  plunged  the  occu- 
pant of  the  chair  under  water  as  many  times  as 
the  magistrate  or  "  her  poore  husband"  required. 

Near  the  court-house,  in  every  town,  stood  a 
ducking-stool,  a  whipping-post,  a  pillory,  and  a 
pair  of  stocks.  In  the  pillory  the  criminal  stood  on 
a  raised  platform,  with  his  hands  and  head  thrust 
through  a  board  on  the  level  with  his  shoulders, 
in  helpless  ignominy.  At  Queenstown  a  man 
found  guilty  of  selling  short  measure  was  com- 
pelled to  stand  thus  for  hours,  with  the  word  cheat 
written  on  his  back,  while  the  populace  pelted  him 
258 


Tlic   Colonial   Cavalier. 

with  stones  and  eggs.  The  stocks,  while  equally 
ignominious,  were  somewhat  more  comfortable, 
since  the  malefactor  was  seated  on  a  bench  with 
his  hands  and  feet  pinioned  by  the  jointed  planks 
before  him.  These  were  mild  forms  of  punish- 
ment. For  serious  offences,  far  harsher  methods 
were  adopted.  Ears  were  cropped  from  bleeding 
heads,  hands  and  feet  were  cut  off,  or  the  offender 
was  sentenced  to  whipping  at  the  cart's  tail, 
whereupon  he  was  tied  to  the  back  of  a  cart,  slowly 
driven  through  the  town,  and  thus  flogged,  as  he 
went,  by  the  common  executioner.  A  not  unusual 
punishment  was  branding  the  cheek,  forehead,  or 
shoulder  with  the  first  letter  of  the  crime  com- 
mitted— as  R.,  for  running  away;  P.,  for  perjury, 
or  S.  L.,  for  Seditious  Libel.  Indeed,  the  man 
who  escaped  with  his  life  from  the  hands  of  col- 
onial justice,  might  count  himself  fortunate, 
though  he  were  condemned  to  go  through  the  re- 
mainder of  his  existence  minus  a  hand,  a  foot,  or 
an  ear;  or  to  have  the  ignominy  of  his  sentence 
written  on  his  face  for  all  to  read;  for  sterner 
punishment  than  any  of  these  was  possible. 

Death  itself  was  meted  out  not  infrequently, 
and  the  barbarities  of  drawing  and  quartering  in 
some  instances,  fortunately  rare,  added  horror  to 
punishment,  and  the  statistics  we  find  quite  calmly 
set  down  make  the  blood  run  cold. 
259 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 


At  a  Court  held  for  Goochland  Count}'  the  ninth  day  of 
October  Anno    Domi    MDCCXXXIII   for   laying   the 
County  levey. 
Present : 

John    ffleming,     Daniel    Sfoner,    Tarlton    ffleming, 
George  Payne,  William  Cabbell,  James  Skelton, 
Gent.  Justices. 
Goochland  Coointy Dr.     Tobacco. 

To  Thomas  Walker  &  Joseph  Dabbs  sub-sherifs 

for  a  mistake  in  the  levey  in  1 732 10 

To  Do.  for  going  to  Williamsburg  for  a  Comis- 
sion  of  Oyer  &  Terminer  to  try  Champion, 
Lucy,  Valentine,  Sampson,  Harry  & 
George,  Negros  90  miles  going  at  2lb  and  go 
miles  returning  at  2lb  p.  mile 360 

To  Do.  for  sumoning  the  Justices  and  attending 

the  Court  for  the  tryal  of  the  said  Negros. . .  200 

To  Do.  for  Executing  Champion  &  Valentine, 

2501b  each 500 

To  Do.  for  providing  Tarr,  burying  the  trunk, 
cutting  out  the  quarters  a  Pott,  Carts  & 
horses  carrying  and  setting  up  the  heads  & 
quarters  of  the  two  Negros  at  the  places  men- 
tioned by  order  of  Court 2000 

And  this  was  in  our  own  country,  only  a  century 
and  a  half  ago! 

A  Maryland  statute  enumerates  among  capital 
offences:  manslaughter,  malicious  trespass,  for- 
gery, receiving  stolen  goods,  and  "stealth  of  one's 
self"' — which  is  the  unlawful  departure  of  a  servant 

260 


The   Colonial   Cavalier. 

out  of  service  or  out  of  the  colony  without  the 
consent  of  his  master  or  mistress — "offender  to 
suffer  pains  of  death  by  hanging  except  the  offender 
can  read  clerk-like,  and  then  he  shall  lose  his 
hand,  and  be  burned  in  the  hand  or  forehead  with 
a  hot  iron,  and  forfeit  his  lands  at  the  time  of  the 
offense  committed. "  This  test  of  ability  to  read — 
'' legit  aut  nofi  legit V — was  manifestly  a  clause  in- 
serted to  favor  the  clergy,  and  so  woven  into  the 
tissue  of  mediaeval  law,  that  the  Reformation  had 
been  powerless  to  unravel  it. 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  economical  planters 
wisely  preferred  those  forms  of  punishment,  which 
cost  the  State  nothing  but  the  services  of  the  con- 
stable and  the  executioner,  to  the  confinement  in 
prison,  which  involved  the  support  of  the  criminal 
at  public  expense.  Prisons,  of  course,  existed 
almost  from  the  beginning.  In  the  Maryland 
archivesof  1676,  I  read  that  "Cap'  Quigly brought 
into  this  house  the  act  for  Building  the  State  House 
and  prisson  at  S'  Maries,  and  desires  to  know  what 
manner  of  Windowes  the  house  shall  have."  It 
is  at  length  decided  accordingly  by  the  Assembly 
"  that  the  windowes  are  to  bee  of  Wood  with  sub- 
stanciall  Iron  barres  and  th''  the  wood  of  the  frame 
of  the  Windowes  be  layd  in  Oyle. "  For  the  safer 
guarding  of  the  prisoners,  it  is  also  directed  that 
the  windows,   which  were  to  be  only  twenty  by 

261 


The  Colonial  CaNalicr. 

thirty  inches  in  size,  be  protected  by  "  Three  Iron 
Barres  upright,  and  two  athwart." 

The  prisons  found  little  occupation  as  com- 
pared with  the  pillory  and  the  whipping-post. 
The  latter  was  the  common  corrector  of  drunken- 
ness, which  was  a  too  frequent  offence  in  those  old 
days  in  the  Cavalier  Colonies,  when  the  gentry 
sipped  their  madeira  over  the  polished  dining- 
table  and  the  poor  man  mixed  his  toddy  in  his 
noggin  of  pewter  or  wood.  All  men  drank,  and 
most  men  drank  too  much.  Wines  played  an 
important  part  in  the  colonial  imports.  A  Vir- 
ginia statute  of  1645  fixed  the  price  of  canary  and 
sherry  at  thirty  pounds  of  tobacco,  madeira  and 
*'  Fyall"  at  twenty  pounds,  while  aqua-vit^e  and 
brandy  ran  up  to  forty.  A  few  years  later  Master 
George  Fletcher,  his  heirs  and  executors,  were 
granted  by  statute,  the  sole  right  to  brew  in  wooden 
vessels  for  fourteen  years.  Maryland  laid  a  tax 
upon  "  Rhume,  Perrie,  Molasses,  Sider,  Quince 
Drink  or  Strong  Beer  Imported,  each  5  lbs  tob. 
per  gal." 

The  State,  having  made  a  handsome  profit  from 
the  selling  of  all  these  wines  and  "  hot  waters, " 
straightway  became  very  virtuous  against  the  poor 
wight  who  took  too  much.  He  was  sentenced 
to  the  joys  of  the  whipping-post,  or  to  be  laid 
in  the  stocks,  or  to  pay  a  fine;  thus  again  mak- 
262 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

ing  liquor  pay  a  revenue  to  the  State.  We 
have  an  amusing  description  of  what  constitutes 
drunkenness,  from  a  Colonial  Dogberry  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  who  sapiently  observes: 
"  Now,  for  to  know  a  drunken  man  the  better,  the 
Scripture  describes  them  to  stagger  and  reel  to 
and  fro;  And  so,  where  the  same  legs  which 
carry  a  man  into  the  house  can  not  bring  him  out 
again,  it  is  a  sufficient  sign  of  drunkenness." 
The  difficulty  in  convicting  these  offenders  with 
two  pairs  of  legs,  lay  in  the  general  sentiment  of 
the  communit)',  that  after  all  there  was  no  great 
harm  in  taking  a  little  too  much  of  so  good  a  thing 
as  liquor. 

The  same  public  sentiment  protected  duelling, 
which  was  imder  the  ban  of  the  statute-books; 
but  these  old  laws  show  the  futility  of  attempt- 
ing to  legislate  far  in  advance  of  public  opinion. 
The  law  opposed  it,  but  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment sustained  it.  The  number  of  duels  fought 
at  the  South  in  colonial  times  has  been  grossly 
over-estimated,  but  they  were  fought;  and  the 
general  feeling  in  regard  to  the  practice  was 
accurately  expressed  by  Oglethorpe  of  Georgia, 
that  typical  Cavalier  and  true  gentleman  of 
the  old  school,  who,  when  asked  if  he  approved  of 
duelling,  made  answer,  "  Of  course  a  man  must 
protect  his  honor."  This  curious  notion  that  a 
263 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

man's  honor  was  a  vague  but  very  sensitive  article, 
worn  about  the  person,  and  capable  of  being  in- 
jured by  any  brawler  who  chanced  to  jostle  against 
it  at  an  "ordinary,"  or  any  vagabond  who  wished 
to  pick  a  quarrel  with  his  betters  on  the  road,  was 
a  relic  of  feudal  days,  when  hostile  factions  met 
and  fought  at  every  corner ;  and  the  Colonial  Cava- 
lier held  to  it  loyally,  never  asking  himself  why 
or  wherefore.  This  theory,  which  makes  the  in- 
dividual and  not  the  vState  the  avenger  of  insult 
and  injury,  found  its  logical  climax  in  the  methods 
adopted  by  Colonel  Charles  Lynch,  a  Virginia 
planter  before  the  Revolution,  and  the  author  of  a 
quick  and  simple  form  of  law  called  by  his  name, 
and  very  popular  still,  though,  to  do  him  justice, 
it  must  be  said  that  his  followers  have  carried 
his  principles  further  than  their  author  intended. 
He  never  took  life,  but  aimed  simply  to  vindicate 
his  own  honor  and  that  of  his  country  by  in- 
flicting lashes  on  those  who  differed  with  him 
politically,  and  thought  he  did  God  service  when 
he  strung  up  suspected  Tories,  and  forced  them 
to  shout  "  Liberty  forever!" 

Thus  our  study  of  the  lawmaking  and  law- 
breaking  records  has  brought  us  all  the  way  from 
that  House  of  Burgesses  sitting  at  James  Cittie  in 
1619 — their  hearts  full  of  loyalty  to  his  Majesty 
King  James  the  First,  and  full  of  gratitude  for 
264 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

the  slender  liberties  he  has  seen  fit  to  loan  rather 
than  grant  them — to  the  brink  of  the  Revolution, 
to  parties  of  the  Crown  and  of  the  people,  to  the 
hall  in  the  Virginia  Capitol  where  the  Assembly 
is  boiling  with  wrath  and  defiance  against  George 
the  Third  and  his  ministers,  who  have  dared  to 
insult  the  rights  and  liberties  of  a  free  people.  It 
is  a  mighty  transformation  to  have  been  brought 
about  in  a  century  and  a  half.  The  Southern 
Colonies  did  not  give  up  their  allegiance  without 
a  bitter  struggle  of  reason  against  sentiment,  a 
struggle  which  New  England  never  knew ;  but  at 
length  the  loyalty  which  had  bowed  down  to  fallen 
royalty  at  Breda  and  yielded  Charles  II.  so  early  a 
recognition  that  he  quartered  the  arms  of  Virginia 
with  those  of  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  and 
spoke  of  it  as  the  Old  Dominion — at  last,  this  gen- 
erous, faithful,  confiding  loyalty  had  been  outraged 
past  endurance.  But  still  the  old  traditions  lin- 
gered. Gen.  John  Mason  says:  "  So  universal  was 
the  idea  that  it  was  treason  and  death  to  speak 
ill  of  the  king,  that  I  even  now  remember  a 
scene  in  the  garden  at  Springfield,  when  my 
father's  family  were  spending  the  day  there  on 
a  certain  Sunday,  when  I  must  have  been  very 
small.  Several  of  the  children  having  collected 
in  the  garden,  after  hearing  in  the  house  among 
our  elders  many  complaints  and  distressing  fore- 
265 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

bodings  as  to  this  oppressive  course  towards 
our  country,  we  were  talking  the  matter  over  in 
our  own  way,  and  I  cursed  the  King,  but  im- 
mediately begged  and  obtained  the  promise  of  the 
others  not  to  tell  on  me." 

Yet  at  this  moment,  when  the  young  rebel  was 
trembling  in  the  garden  for  the  effects  of  his  aw- 
ful temerity,  America  was  already  on  the  eve  of 
the  outbreak  which  severed  her  forever  from  the 
King  and  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain.  The 
allegiance  of  the  loyal  colonies  could  not  have 
fallen  so  suddenly,  but  for  the  long  years  of  sap- 
ping and  mining  which  had  gone  on  silently,  yet 
surely,  doing  their  work. 

From  the  time  of  the  thrusting  out  of  Sir  John 
Harvey  and  his  return,  backed  by  the  authority  of 
Charles  the  First,  there  had  been  a  war  waged  by 
proxy  between  king  and  people.  The  governors 
represented  tyranny,  and  the  Assembly  opposed 
each  encroachment.  Eye  to  eye  they  stood,  like 
wrestlers,  neither  side  yielding  a  point  without  a 
struggle,  yet  both  expressing  equal  loyalty  and  love 
for  the  King,  and  equal  reverence  for  his  authority. 
Virginia  long  preserved  "an  after-dinner  alle- 
giance" to  the  Crown  even  when  she  openly  defied 
its  policy.  Virginians  drank  his  Majesty's  health, 
wiped  their  lips,  and  imprecated  his  Majesty's 
Navigation  Acts,     If  their  political  creed  bound 

266 


The  Colonial   Cavalier, 

them  to  the  fiction  that  the  King  could  do  no  wrong, 
they  cherished  no  such  delusion  concerning  his 
deputies. 

When  Sir  William  Berkeley,  as  despotic  at 
heart  as  his  Stuart  master,  undertook  to  play  the 
tyrant  in  Virginia,  the  country  blazed  out  into  a 
rebellion,  which  died  only  with  the  death  of 
Nathaniel  Bacon,  its  leader.  Bacon  was  a  rebel, 
but  a  rebel  of  the  type  of  Washington  and  Patrick 
Henry — one  who  believed  in  the  motto  which  Jef- 
ferson engraved  on  his  seal,  "  Rebellion  against 
tyrants  is  obedience  to  God."  What  vigor  and 
eloquence  are  thrown  into  his  proclamations! 
They  belong  to  the  brightest  pages  of  American 
literature.      Read  but  the  opening  of 

"NATHANIEL  BACON    ESQ'r,    HIS  MANIFESTO  CONCERN- 
ING  THE  PRESENT  TROUBLES  IN   VIRGINIA. 

"  If  vertue  be  a  sin,  if  Piety  be  giult,  all  the 
Principles  of  morality  goodness  and  Justice  be 
perverted,  Wee  must  confesse  That  those  who  are 
now  called  Rebells  ma}'  be  in  danger  of  those  high 
imputations.  Those  loud  and  severall  Bulls  would 
affright  Innocents  and  render  the  defence  of  o"" 
Brethren  and  the  enquiry  into  o""  sad  and  heavy 
oppressions,  Treason.  But  if  there  bee,  as  sure 
there  is,  a  just  God  to  appeal  too,  if  Religion  and 
Justice  be  a  sanctuary  here,  If  to  plead  y^  cause 
267 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

of  the  oppressed,  If  sincerely  to  aime  at  his  Mat'''^ 
Honour  and  the  Publick  good  without  any  reser- 
vation or  by  Interest,  If  to  stand  in  the  Gap  after 
soe  much  blood  of  o''  dear  Brethren  bought  and 
sold.  If  after  the  losse  of  a  great  part  of  his  JMa^'"^* 
Colony  deserted  and  dispeopled,  freely  with  o"" 
lives  and  estates  to  indeavor  to  save  the  remayn- 
ders  bee  Treason,  God  Almighty  Judge  and  lett 
guilty  dye.  But  since  wee  cannot  in  o'"  hearts 
find  one  single  spott  of  Rebellion  or  Treason  or 
that  wee  have  in  any  manner  aimed  at  the  sub- 
verting y^  setled  Government  or  attempting  of  the 
person  of  any  either  magistrate  or  private  man  not 
with  standing  the  severall  Reproaches  and  Threats 
of  some  who  for  sinister  ends  were  disaffected  tons 
and  censured  o""  ino[cent]  and  honest  designes, 
and  since  all  people  in  all  places  where  wee  have 
yet  bin  can  attest  o""  civill,  quiet,  peaseable  behav- 
iour farre  different  from  that  of  Rebellion  and 
tumultuous  persons,  let  Trueth  be  bold  and  all  the 
world  know  the  real  Foundations  of  pretended 
giult." 

AVhen  this  ardent  and  impetuous  nature  was  van- 
quished as  alone  it  could  be  vanquished — by 
death — Berkeley  might,  by  judicious  magnani- 
mity, have  healed  the  wounds  of  civil  war;  but, 
instead,  he  pursued  the  conquered  rebels  with  a 
malignaiit  perseverance,  which   seemed   to  grow 

268 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

by  what  it  fed  on.  "Mr.  Drummond,"  he  said 
ironically  to  a  follower  of  Bacon  brought  to  him 
as  a  prisoner,"  you  are  very  welcome!  I  am  more 
glad  to  see  you  than  any  man  in  Virginia.  You 
shall  be  hanged  in  half  an  hour." 

Twenty-three  leaders  of  this  rebellion  were  thus 
executed  before  Berkeley  stayed  the  bloody  hand 
of  his  vengeance.  "  The  old  fool, "  quoth  the  King, 
"hath  taken  more  lives  in  that  naked  country, 
than  I  for  my  father's  murder!" 

Bacon's  death  remains  one  of  the  mysteries  of 
history.  Some  said  he  died  of  miasma  in  the 
Virginia  swamps;  some  hinted  that  his  foes 
poisoned  his  food,  so  sudden  and  mysterious  was 
his  ending;  and  lest  Berkeley's  revenge  should 
extend  to  insulting  the  very  corpse  of  his  foe. 
Bacon's  followers  buried  him  with  the  greatest 
secrecy,  and  no  man  knoweth  the  resting  place  of 
this  first  colonial  champion  of  popular  rights.  But 
the  spirit  of  popular  liberty  did  not  die  with  Bacon, 
nor  vice-royal  tyranny  with  Berkeley.  Culpeper, 
Howard,  and  a  score  of  others  came  over  from 
England,  one  after  another,  all  differing  on  many 
points  of  provincial  policy,  but  united  in  the  de- 
termination to  fill  their  own  pockets  and  the  royal 
exchequer  by  means  of  colonial  revenue.  "  Lord 
Colepepper,"  commented  Beverley,  "reduced  the 
greatest  perquisite  of  his  place  to  a  certaint)^ 
269 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

which  before  was  only  gratuitous;  that  is,  instead 
of  the  masters  of  ships  making  presents  of  Liquors 
or  provisions  toward  the  Governor's  housekeeping, 
as  they  were  wont  to  do,  he  demanded  a  certain 
amount  of  money,  remitting  that  custom."  Such 
petty  exactions  as  this  were  a  dangerous  experi- 
ment with  a  vehement  and  high-spirited  people, 
who  were  willing  to  give  much,  but  to _)7V/^ nothing. 

The  justice  and  moderation  of  Spotswood's  gov- 
ernment held  back  the  tide  of  popular  revolt  for 
some  time,  and  the  French  and  Indian  War  roused  a 
final  flicker  of  loyalty  to  the  mother-country;  but 
England's  success  in  that  struggle  cost  her  the 
American  provinces.  When  Quebec  surrendered 
to  Wolfe's  troops,  and  the  French  force  was  with- 
drawn from  Canada,  the  Comte  de  Vergennes 
prophesied  the  coming  revolution  against  England. 
"The  colonies,"  said  he,  "  will  no  longer  need  her 
protection.  She  will  call  on  them  to  contribute 
toward  supporting  the  burdens  they  have  helped  to 
bring  on  her,  and  they  will  answer  by  striking  off 
all  dependence." 

In  1768  affairs  looked  stormy  in  Virginia,  and 
Lord  Botetourt  was  sent  over  to  prophesy  smooth 
things  and  allay  popular  irritation,  without  com- 
mitting the  government  by  definite  promises.  The 
man  was  well  chosen  for  the  task.  Junius  de- 
scribed him  as  a  cringing,  bowing,  fawning,  sword- 

270 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

bearing-  courtier.  Horace  Walpole  said  his  gra- 
ciou.sness  was  enamelled  on  iron.  He  came,  he 
saw,  he  conquered  Virginia  in  a  bloodless  victory, 
but  Virginia  did  not  stay  conquered.  When  the 
colonists  presented  an  address  which  he  was 
pleased  to  consider  insubordinate,  Botetourt  dis- 
solved the  Assembly;  but  they  retired  to  a  private 
house,  elected  Peyton  Randolph  moderator,  and 
prepared  and  signed  a  resolution  to  abstain  from 
all  merchandise  taxed  by  Parliament. 

The  beginning  of  the  end  was  at  hand.  The 
farce  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  its  reim- 
position  went  on.  Botetourt  went  home,  and  Lord 
Dunmore,  the  last  of  the  hated  race  of  governors, 
came  over.  His  imbecile  policy,  at  once  timid 
and  tyrannous,  hastened  the  march  of  events,  but 
the  end  was  inevitable.  "Colonies,"  said  Turgot, 
"  are  like  fruits,  which  cling  to  the  tree  only  till 
they  ripen."  So  the  event  proved  in  America — 
Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  Maryland  and  Rhode 
Island,  travelling  by  different  roads,  reached  the 
same  point  of  determination  at  any  cost  to  throw 
off  the  yoke  of  British  oppression.  Henceforth 
they  were  to  be  no  more  provincials,  but  patriots; 
and  Cavalier  and  Puritan  struck  hands  in  the 
hearty  good-will  of  a  common  cause. 
271 


SICKNESS  AND   DEATH 


SICKNESS  «.iDEA¥H 


I0NP:ER  life  is  all  very  well 
when  the  adventurer  is  in  high 
health  and  spirits;  but  when 
sickness  comes,  he  must  be  stout  of  heart 
indeed  if  he  does  not  sigh  for  the  com- 
forts of  a  civilized  home.  The  poor  set- 
tlers had  a  sorry  time  of  it  in  that  first 
fatal  summer  on  the  banks  of  the  James, 
when  they  breathed  in  malaria  from  the 
marshes  and  drank  the  germs  of  fever 
and  "  fluxes"  in  the  muddy  water.  "  If 
there  were  any  conscience  in  men,"  wrote 
gallant  George  Percy,  "  it  would  make  their  hearts 
bleed  to  hear  the  pitiful  murmurings  and  outcries 
of  our  sick  men,  without  relief,  every  day  and 
night  for  the  space  of  six  weeks;  some  departing 
out  of  the  world,  many  times  three  or  four  in  a 
night,  in  the  morning  their  bodies  trailed  out  of 
their  cabins,  like  dogs,  to  be  buried." 

The  adventurers  profited  by  the  lesson  of  these 
troublous  times;  for  as  soon  as  the  settlement  was 
fairly  re-established  under  Dale,  they  set  to  work 
upon  a  hospital.  On  the  river  opposite  Henrico, 
they  put  up  "  a  guest-house  for  ye  sicke  people,  a 
275 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

high  seat  and  wholesome  aire,"  and  christened  the 
place,  Mount  Malado.  The  chronicles  are  provok- 
ingly  silent  as  to  an)-  details  of  this  first  American 
sanitorium.  They  say  nothing  of  its  arrange- 
ments, its  comforts,  or  its  conveniences.  We  do  not 
know  even  the  names  of  those  who  shared  its  rude 
shelter,  or  of  the  physicians  who  treated  them. 
From  time  to  time  the  mention  of  some  doctor 
is  interwoven  with  the  history  of  the  colonists, 
but  he  passes  as  a  pale  shadow,  with  none  of  the 
character  and  substance  of  the  gallant  captains, 
the  doughty  burgesses,  and  the  tipsy  parsons. 
Doctor  Bohun,  who  is  described  as  "brought  up 
amongst  the  most  learned  Surgeons  and  Physi- 
tions  in  Netherlands,"  came  over  and  stayed  with 
the  settlers  for  a  while,  but  Lord  La  Warre  carried 
him  off  as  his  medical  adviser  to  the  "  Western 
lies,"  that  his  Lordship's  gout  might  be  "  asswaged 
by  the  meanes  of  fresh  dyet,  especially  Oranges 
and  Limons,  an  undoubted  remedie  for  that  dis- 
ease"; and  a  little  later  the  good  doctor  perished 
in  a  sea-fight  with  Spaniards  on  the  ship  Mar- 
garet and  John.  Dr.  Simons'  name  is  signed  to 
one  of  the  histories,  but  he  too  fades  away  and 
leaves  no  trace,  and  a  Dr.  Pot  has  survived  only 
through  honorable  mention,  as  "  our  worthy  phy- 
sition." 

Either  the  country  was  too  healthy,  or  the  in- 
276 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

habitants  too  poor  to  encourage  immigration 
among  doctors,  for  they  were  few  and  far  between, 
and  we  find  men  of  other  trades  acting  in  the  ca- 
pacity of  physician.  There  was  Captain  Norton, 
for  instance,  "a  valiant,  industrious  gentleman 
adorned  with  many  good  qualities  besides  Physicke 
and  Chirurgery,  which  for  the  publicke  good,  he 
freely  imparted  to  all  gratis,  but  most  bountifully 
to  y*^  poore." 

It  was  common  for  barbers  to  combine  the  use 
of  the  knife  with  that  of  the  razor,  and  for  the 
apothecary  to  prescribe,  as  well  as  mix,  his  own 
drugs.  Colonel  Byrd  writes  that  in  Fredericks- 
burg, "besides  Col.  Willis,  who  is  the  top  man  of 
the  place,  there  are  only  one  merchant,  a  tailor, 
a  smith,  an  ordinary-keeper,  and  a  lady  who  acts 
both  as  doctress  and  coffee-house  keeper."  A  list 
of  prominent  citizens  in  Baltimore  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  includes  a  barber,  two  carpenters, 
a  tailor,  a  parson,  and  an  inn-keeper,  but  no  doctor; 
unless  we  reckon  as  such  Dame  Hughes  and  Dame 
Littig,  who  are  registered  as  midwives. 

The  isolation  of  plantation  life  made  it  doubly 
difficult  to  depend  on  doctors,  and  as  a  result,  each 
family  had  its  own  medicine-chest,  and  its  own 
recipes  and  prescriptions  handed  down  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  and  brought  oftentimes  from 
across  the  sea.     Herbs  played  an  important  part 

277 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

in  the  pharmacopoeia,  both  because  they  were 
easily  obtained,  and  because  tradition  endowed 
them  with  mysterious  virtues.  An  old  medical 
treatise  assures  its  readers  that  "  Nature  has 
stamped  on  divers  plants  legible  characters  to 
discover  their  uses" ;  that  baldness  may  be  cured 
by  hanging-moss,  and  freckles  by  spotted  plants. 
Ragwort,  and  periwinkle,  and  Solomon's  Seal  all 
had  their  special  merits;  but  sage  was  prime 
favorite,  and  its  votary  declares  it  a  question  how 
one  who  grows  it  in  his  garden  and  uses  it  freely 
can  ever  die.  Next  to  ease  of  preparation,  the 
prime  requisite  of  a  medicine  was  strength. 
Violent  purges  and  powerful  doses  of  physic  or 
of  "The  Bark"  were  always  in  favor.  The  simple 
ailments  of  childhood  were  dosed  with  such 
abominations  as  copperas  and  pewter-filings,  and 
these  unhappy  infants  were  fed  on  beverages  of 
snake-root  or  soot-tea.  One  vile  compound, 
common  as  it  was  odious,  was  snail  pottage,  made  of 
garden  shell-snails  washed  in  small  beer,  mixed 
with  earth-worms,  and  then  fried  in  a  concoction 
of  ale,  herbs,  spices,  and  drugs. 

Yet  our  ancestors  knew  how  to  brew  good-tast- 
ing things.  The  letter  book  of  Francis  Jerdone, 
of  Yorktown,  Virginia,  records  under  date  1746, 
"A  receit  how  to  make  Burlington's  Universal 
Balsam. 

278 


X  lie     \wUluiiiai     v_civcnn_i. 

Balsam  Peru 

I  oz. 

Best  Storax 

2  oz. 

Benjamin,  impregnated  with  sweet  Almonds 

3  oz. 

Alices  Succatrinx    ...... 

Yz  oz. 

Myrrh  Elect 

Yz  oz. 

Purest  Frankincense 

>^oz. 

>^oz. 

Flowers  of  St.  John  Wort        .... 

Yz  oz- 

To  be  bottled  up  and  Set  in  the  Sun  for  20  or 
30  days  together,  to  be  shaken  twice  or  thrice  a 
day.  Take  about  30  drops  going  to  bed  in  Tea 
made  of  pennyroyal,  Balm  or  Speer  mint." 

This  prescription  has  the  great  defect  of  being 
too  good,  and  might  have  a  tendency  to  tempt  the 
young  to  acquire  the  disease  in  order  to  be  treated  to 
the  remedy.  Anodic  Snuff  was  another  agreeable 
medicament,  warranted  to  cure  all  head  troubles 
and  help  the  palsy,  megrims,  deafness,  apoplexy, 
and  gout.  What  a  pity  that  only  the  name  of  this 
cure  remains  to  our  generation,  whose  megrims 
alone  would  empty  so  many  boxes  of  the  invaluable 
snuff! 

The  early  settlers  could,  if  they  would,  have 
learned  some  useful  lessons  in  the  treatment  of 
disease  from  the  Indians,  who  at  least  understood 
making  the  skin  share  the  work  of  the  stomach. 
A  primitive,  but  very  effective,  way  of  treating 
fevers  and  similar  ailments  among  the  natives  was 
279 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

by  the  sweating-oven.  The  Indian  patient  would 
creep  into  these  mounds,  under  which  a  fire  had 
been  lighted,  while  the  medicine-man  poured  on 
water  from  above,  creating  a  mighty  steam,  in 
which  the  patient  would  continue  till  even  Indian 
fortitude  could  hold  out  no  longer,  when  he  would 
crawl  out,  and,  rushing  down  to  the  nearest  stream, 
plunge  headlong  into  its  cold  waters.  All  this  pro- 
cess was,  of  course,  performed  amid  incantations 
as  mysterious  to  the  whites  as  the  phraseology  of 
a  modern  physician  to  a  savage. 

This  treatment  was  more  in  harmony  with 
modern  ideas  than  the  methods  which  prevailed 
among  the  English.  When  the  two  Spotswood 
boys  were  sent  across  the  sea  to  Eton,  to  school, 
they  spent  their  vacations  with  their  aunt,  Mrs. 
Campbell,  who  writes  to  their  landlady  at  the  end 
of  their  stay:  "I  am  very  Sorry,  Madam,  to  send 
them  back  with  such  bad  coughs,  though  I  have 
nursed  Jack  who  was  so  bad  that  we  were  obliged 
to  Bleed  him,  and  physick  him,  that  he  is  much 
better.  I  can't  judge  how  they  got  them  (the 
coughs).  My  son  came  home  with  one,  and  has 
never  been  out  of  the  house  but  once  since,  and 
these  children  have  always  laid  warm,  and  lived 
constantly  in  the  house. "  These  poor  little  victims 
of  the  coddling  system  would  probably  have  re- 
covered rapidly  in  the  steam -bath   of  their  native 

280 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

Virginia  and  the  fresh  air  of  her  pine  forests,  but 
instead,  they  are  sent  back  from  one  hothouse  to 
another.  "I  beg,"  adds  their  affectionate,  but 
misguided  aunt,  "  that  they  may  be  kept  in  a  very 
warm  room,  and  take  the  drops  I  send  every  night, 
and  the  pectoral  drink  several  times  a  day,  and 
that  they  eat  no  meat  or  drink  anything  but  warm 
barley  water  and  lemon  juice,  and,  if  Aleck  in- 
creases, to  get  Blooded."  It  is  a  great  relief,  and 
something  of  a  surprise,  to  learn  that  Aleck  and 
his  brother  John  lived  to  come  back  to  America 
and  figure  in  the  Revolution.  Perhaps  their 
recollections  of  the  dosing  and  "  blooding"  they  re- 
ceived in  their  youth  threw  additional  energy  into 
their  opposition  to  the  oppression  of  England. 

Cupping,  leeching,  and  all  sorts  of  blood-letting 
were  the  chief  dependence  in  olden  times  in  all 
cases  of  fever.  The  free  use  of  water,  now  so 
universal,  would  then  have  been  thought  fatal. 
The  poor  patient  dreaded  the  doctor  more  than 
the  disease,  and  often  with  reason.  Anaesthetics, 
that  best  gift  of  science  to  a  suffering  world,  were 
unknown,  and  surgery  was  vivisection  with  the 
victim  looking  on,  conscious  and  quivering. 

The  doctor  in  the  Cavalier  Colonies  was  regaraed 
with  almost  as  much  suspicion  as  the  parson — as  a 
cormorant,  ready  and  anxious  to  prey  on  the  com- 
munity, and  to  be  held  in  check  by  all  the  severi- 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

ties  of  the  law.  Virginia  in  1657  passed  statutes 
regulating  surgeons'  fees.  In  1680  physicians 
were  compelled  to  declare  under  oath  the  value  of 
their  drugs,  and  the  court  allowed  them  fifty  per 
cent  advance  on  the  cost.  If  any  physician  was 
found  guilty  of  neglecting  a  patient,  he  was  liable 
to  fine  and  punishment. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  still  stricter  laws  were 
framed,  "because  of  surgeons,  apothecaries  and 
unskillful  apprentices  who  exacted  unreasonable 
fees,  and  loading  their  patients  with  medicine." 
The  fees  fixed  by  this  statute  are  "  one  shilling 
per  mile  and  all  medicines  to  be  set  forth  in  the 
bill."  The  price  for  attending  a  common  fracture 
is  set  down  at  two  pounds,  and  double  the  sum  for 
attending  a  compound  fracture.  A  university 
degree  entitled  the  practitioner  to  higher  charges, 
but  its  posssesion  was  rare.  Most  doctors  were 
trained  up  in  the  offices  of  older  men  as  apprentices, 
potmders  of  drugs,  and  cleaners  of  instruments, 
as  the  old  painters  began  by  preparing  paints  and 
brushes  for  the  master. 

A  modern  man  of  science  would  smile  at  the 
titles  of  the  old  medical  works  solemnly  consulted 
by  our  forbears.  "  A  Chirurgicall  Booke"  sounds  in- 
teresting, and  "  The  Universall  Body  of  Physick"  ; 
but  they  are  not  so  alluring  as  "The  Way  to 
Health,  long  life  and  Happiness,"  nor  so  attractive 

282 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

to  the  ignorant  as  "The  Unlearned  Keymiss." 
Perhaps  the  struggling  physicians  and  chirurgians 
who  doctored  by  these  old  books  and  their  common- 
sense,  helped  as  many  and  harmed  no  more  than 
the  chemist  of  to-day,  with  his  endless  pharma- 
copoeia of  coal-tar  products,  tonics,  and  stimulants; 
or  the  specialist  who,  instead  of  "the  Whole  Body 
of  Physick,"  devotes  himself  wholly  to  a  single 
muscle,  or  nerve-ganglion. 

In  spite  of  the  chill  of  popular  disfavor  and  of 
the  difficulties  of  professional  training,  good  and 
noble  men  worked  on  faithfully  at  the  business  of 
helping  the  sick  and  suffering  in  the  colonies. 
The  Maryland  annals  tell  of  a  Dr.  Henry  Steven- 
son, who  built  him  a  house  near  the  York  road  so 
elegant,  that  the  neighbors  called  it  "  Stevenson's 
Folly. "  If  there  was  any  envy  in  their  hearts,  how- 
ever, it  changed  to  gratitude  and  admiration  when 
the  small-pox  appeared  in  their  midst,  and  the 
large-hearted  doctor  turned  his  mansion  into  a 
hospital.  It  is  hard  for  us  who  live  after  the  days  of 
Jenner,  to  appreciate  the  terror  of  the  word  small- 
pox. In  the  eighteenth  century  pitted  faces  were 
the  rule.  Fathers  feared  to  send  their  sons  to  Eng- 
land, so  prevalent  was  the  disease  there.  An  old 
journal  advertises:  "Wanted,  a  man  between 
twenty  and  thirty  years  of  age,  to  be  a  foot- 
man and  under-butler  in  a  great  family ;  he  must  be 

283 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

of  the  Church  of  England,  and  have  had  the  small- 
pox in  the  natural  way." 

This  enlightened  Dr.  wStevenson,  of  Stevenson's 
Folly,  made  Maryland  familiar  with  the  process 
of  inoculation,  which  antedated  vaccination.  He 
advertises  in  The  Maryland  Gazette  of  1765  that  he 
is  ready  to  inoculate  "  any  gentlemen  that  are 
pleased  to  favor  him  in  that  way,"  and  that  his 
fees  are  two  pistoles  for  inoculating,  and  twenty 
shillings  per  week  board,  the  average  cost  to  each 
patient  being  £^^  14s. 

Ryland  Randolph  writes  to  his  brother  at  a  time 
when  inoculation  is  still  a  new  thing:  "I  wrote 
to  m}^  Mother  for  her  consent  to  be  inoculated  for 
the  small-pox,  but  since  see  that  she  thinks  it  a 
piece  of  presumption.  When  you  favor  me  with 
a  line,  pray  let  me  have  your  opinion  of  it!" 

In  1768,  we  find  the  authorities  at  William  and 
Mary  resolving  "  that  an  ad.  be  inserted  in  the 
Gazette  to  inform  the  Publick  that  the  College  is 
now  clear  of  small -pox, "  and  a  few  days  later  they 
frame  another  resolution  that  "  fifty  poimds  be 
allowed  to  Dr.  Carter  for  his  care  and  attendance 
on  those  afflicted  with  said  disorder  at  the  College. " 

Meanwhile  the  colonists  had  not  followed  up 

their  good  beginning  at  Mount  Malado.     Hospitals 

had  not  grown  with  the  growth  of  the  community. 

Doctors  had  none  of  the  advantages  of  the  study 

284 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

of  surgery  and  medicine  which  are  given  by  the 
hospital  system,  but  the  sick  were  tenderly  cared 
for,  nevertheless.  In  Jefferson's  notes  on  the 
advantages  enjoyed  by  the  Virginians,  he  speaks 
of:  "  their  condition  too  when  sick,  in  the  family 
of  a  good  farmer  where  every  member  is  emu- 
lous to  do  them  kind  offices,  where  they  are  vis- 
ited by  all  the  neighbors,  who  bring  them  the 
little  rarities  which  their  sickly  appetites  may 
crave,  and  who  take  by  rotation  the  nightly  watch 
over  them,  without  comparison  better  than  in  a 
general  hospital  where  the  sick,  the  dying  and  the 
dead  are  crammed  together  in  the  same  room,  and 
often  in  the  same  bed."  When  we  read  the 
accounts  of  hospitals  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
antiseptics  unknown,  and  even  ordinary  cleanliness 
uncommon,  we  can  readily  agree  with  the  con- 
clusion that  "  Nature  and  kind  nursing  save  a 
much  greater  proportion  in  our  plain  way,  at  a 
smaller  expense,  and  with  less  abuse." 

Every  wind  that  swept  the  sick-room  in  those 
colonial  farm  houses,  brought  balm  from  the  pines, 
or  vigor  from  the  sea.  Three  thousand  miles  of 
uncontaminated  air  stretched  behind  them  and 
before.  This  pure,  balmy,  bracing  air  cured  the 
sick,  and  kept  the  well  in  health,  in  spite  of 
general  disregard  of  hygiene,  w^hich  prevailed 
almost  universally,  especially  in  all  matters  of 
285 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

diet.  "We  may  venture  to  affirm,"  exclaims  a 
horrified  Frenchman,  fresh  from  the  land  of  scien- 
tific cookery,  "  that  if  a  premium  were  offered  for 
a  regimen  most  destructive  to  the  teeth,  the 
stomach  and  the  health  in  general,  none  could  be 
desired  more  efficacious  for  these  ends  than  that 
in  use  among  this  people.  At  breakfast  they 
deluge  the  stomach  with  a  pint  of  hot  water 
slightly  impregnated  with  tea, or  slightly  tinctured, 
or  rather  coloured  with  coffee ;  and  they  swallow, 
without  mastication,  hot  bread  half-baked,  soaked 
in  melted  butter,  with  the  grossest  cheese  and  salt 
or  hung  beef,  pickled  pork,  or  fish,  all  which  can 
with  difficulty  be  dissolved.  At  dinner,  they 
devour  boiled  pastes,  called  absurdly  puddings, 
garnished  with  the  most  luscious  sauces.  Their 
turnips  and  other  vegetables  are  floated  in  lard  or 
butter.  Their  pastry  is  nothing  but  a  greasy  paste 
imperfectly  baked." 

The  entire  day,  according  to  this  cheerful 
observer,  is  passed  in  heaping  one  indigestible 
mass  on  another,  and  spurring  the  exhausted 
stomach  to  meet  the  strain,  by  wines  and  liquors 
of  all  sorts.  The  population  who  lived  on  such 
a  diet,  ought  to  have  died  young,  to  point  the 
moral  of  the  hygienist ;  but  Nature  pardons  much 
to  those  who  live  in  the  open  air.  If  digestions 
were  taxed,  nerves  remained  unstrained.     Even  in 

286 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

our  age  of  hurry  and  bustle,  anything  like  nervous 
prostration  is  rare,  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line.  The  soft  air  and  the  easy  life  soothe  the 
susceptibilities,  and  oil  the  wheels  of  existence. 
It  is  for  these  reasons,  perchance,  that  the  records 
of  the  burying-grounds  in  the  Southern  colonies 
show  such  a  proportion  of  names  of  octogenarians 
who  had  survived  to  a  ripe  old  age,  in  spite  of 
hot  breads  washed  down  with  hotter  liquors. 

These  burying-grounds  of  the  old  South  are 
robbed  of  much  of  the  dreariness  of  their  kind  by 
being  generally  laid  out  in  close  proximity  to  the 
living  world,  as  if  the  chill  of  the  tomb  were 
beaten  back  by  the  fire-light  falling  on  it  from  the 
familiar  hearth  stone  close  at  hand.  It  is  a  com- 
fort to  think  of  genial  Colonel  Byrd,  who  loved 
so  well  the  good  things  of  this  world,  resting  under 
a  monument  which  duly  sets  forth  his  virtues,  on 
the  edge  of  the  garden  at  Westover,  beneath  an 
arbor  screened  only  by  vines  from  the  door  where 
he  passed  in  and  out  for  so  many  years. 

Hugh  Jones,  that  conservative  son  of  the 
church,  lamented  that  the  Virginians  did  not 
prefer  to  lie  in  the  church-yard  for  their  last  long 
sleep.  "It  is  customary,"  he  says  regretfully, 
"  to  bury  in  garden,  or  orchards,  where  whole 
families  lye  interred  together,  in  a  spot,  generally 
handsomely  enclosed,  planted  with  evergreens, 
287 


The  Colonial   Ca\alier. 

and  the  graves  kept  decently.  Hence,  likewise, 
arises  the  occasion  of  preaching  funeral  sermons 
in  houses  where,  at  funerals,  are  assembled  a  great 
congregation  of  neighbors  and  friends;  and  if  you 
insist  on  having  the  service  and  ceremony  at 
church,  they'll  say  they  will  be  without  it,  unless 
performed  after  their  own  manner." 

Here  we  have  a  flash  of  the  spirit  of  resistance 
to  undue  encroachments  from  church  or  state, 
which  flamed  up  half  a  century  later  into  open 
revolt.  There  is  something  touching  in  this  cling- 
ing to  the  home  round  which  so  many  memories 
cluster,  in  this  desire  to  lay  the  dead  there  close 
to  all  they  had  loved,  and  when  their  own  time 
came,  to  lie  down  beside  them  under  the  shadow 
of  the  old  walls  which  had  sheltered  their  infancy, 
and  youth,  and  age. 

If  the  burying-grounds  were  cheerful,  still  more 
so  were  the  funerals.  They  partook,  in  fact,  of 
the  nature  of  an  Irish  wake.  Wine  was  freely 
drunk,  and  funeral  baked  meats  demolished,  while 
the  firing  of  guns  was  so  common  that  many  asked 
by  will  that  it  be  omitted,  as  friends  to-day  are 
"kindly  requested  to  omit  flowers." 

The  funeral  expenses  of  a  gentleman  of  Balti- 
more town  in  the  eighteenth  century  were  some- 
what heavy,  as  any  one  may  judge  from  an  itemized 
account  preserved  to  us,  which  includes:    "Coffin 

288 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

£(i  i6s,  41  yds.  crape,  32  yds.  black  Tiffany,  11 
yds.  black  crape,  5^  broadcloth,  7>^  yards  of 
black  vShaloon,  i6>^  yds.  linen,  3  yds.  sheeting,  3 
doz.  pairs  men's  black  silk  gloves,  2  doz.  pairs 
women's  do.,  6  pairs  men's  blk.  gloves  (cheaper),  i 
pr.  women's  do.,  black  silk  handkerchiefs,  8>^ 
yards  calamanco,  mohair  and  buckram,  13)^  yds. 
ribbon,  4714  lbs.  loaf  sugar,  14  doz.  eggs,  10  oz. 
nutmegs,  i^  pounds  alspice,  20^  gallons  white 
wine,  12  bottles  red  wine,  10^^  gallons  rum."  The 
total  cost  of  these  preparations  amounts  to  upward 
of  fifty  pounds  sterling,  besides  the  two  pounds  to 
be  paid  to  Dame  Hannah  Gash  and  Mr.  Ireland 
for  attendance,  while  ten  shillings  additional  were 
allowed  for  "coffin  furniture." 

When  a  Thomas  Jefferson,  ancestor  of  the 
Thomas  Jefferson,  died  in  Virginia  in  1698,  his 
funeral  expenses  included  the  items: 

To   Benj.  Branch   for  a    ilutton    for   the 

funerall  6olbs.  tobacco. 

To  Ann   Carraway  and  IMarj'  Harris  for 

mourning  Rings £\ 

To  Sam'll  Branch  for  makeing  y"  coffin....  10^ 

For  plank  for  y«  coffin 2^  6'' 

The  list  of   expenses   closes   with    unconscious 
satire,  thus:  "Previous  item — to  Dr.  Bowman  for 
Phisick,    60    lbs.    tobacco,"   showing    that   every 
arrangement  for  the  taking  under  was  complete. 
289 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

These  inventories  and  wills  cast  wonderful  side- 
lights on  the  manners  and  customs  of  "  y''  olden 
tyme."  To  our  age,  accustomed  to  endless  post- 
mortem litigation,  there  is  a  refreshing  simplicity 
in  these  old  documents,  which  seem  to  take  for 
granted  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  state  the  wishes 
of  the  testator.  Richard  Lightfoote,  ancestor  of 
the  Virginia  Lightfoots,  who  made  his  will  in  1625, 
"  in  the  first  yeare  of  the  raigne  of  our  Soveraigne 
Lord  King  Charles,"  feeling  perhaps  a  little  fearful 
of  disputes  among  his  heirs,  appoints  Thomas 
Jones  "to  bee  overseer  herof,  to  see  the  same 
formed  in  all  things  accordinge  to  my  true  mean- 
inge;  hereby  requestinge  all  the  parties  legatees 
aforenamed  to  make  him  judge  and  decider  of 
all  controversies  which  shall  arise  between  them 
or  anie  of  them."  But  there  is  no  record  that 
the  services  of  Thomas  Jones  were  needed  as 
mediator,  and  when  Jane  Lightfoote,  his  wife, 
makes  her  will,  she  goes  about  it  in  a  still  more 
childlike  and  trustful  fashion. 

She  leaves  her  "  little  cottage  pott"  to  one,  and 
her  "little  brasse  pan"  to  another.  No  object  is 
too  trifling  to  be  disposed  of  individually.  The 
inventory  of  Colonel  Ludlow,  who  departed  this 
life  in  1660,  is  a  curious  jumble  of  things  small 
and  large.  Here  we  have  "  one  rapier,  one  hanger, 
and  black  belt,  three  p'r  of  new  gloves  and  one 

290 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

p'r  of  horn  buckskin  gloves,  one  small  silver  Tank- 
ard, one  new  silver  hat-band,  two  pair  of  silver 
breeches  buttons,  one  wedding  Ring,  one  sealed 
Ring,  a  pcell  of  sweet  powder  and  2  p'r  of  band 
strings,"  besides  which  is  specially  mentioned: 
"Judge  Richardson  to  y"  Wast  in  a  picture," 
valued  at  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco.  In  addition  to 
these,  Colonel  Ludlow  died  possessed  of  "  12  white 
servants  and  ten  negroes,  43  cattle,  54  sheep  and 
4  horses." 

The  favorite  testimonial  of  afifection  to  survivors 
was  the  mourning  ring  or  seal.  These  gifts  figure 
in  almost  every  will  we  examine,  one  mentioning 
a  bequest  of  money  for  the  purchase  of  "  thirty 
rings  for  relatives."  The  keepsakes  were  care- 
fully cherished,  and  the  survivors  in  turn  set  up  the 
memorial  tablet,  or  carved  the  tombstone,  or  pre- 
sented some  piece  of  plate  to  the  parish  church, 
to  keep  fresh  the  name  and  memory  of  the  de- 
ceased. In  Christ  Church,  at  Norfolk,  is  an  old 
Alms  Bason  marked  with  a  Lion  Passant  and  a 
Leopard's  Head  crowned,  in  the  centre  a  coat  of 
arms,  three  Griffins'  heads  erased,  and  the  inscrip- 
tion: 

"The  gift  of  Capt.  Whitwell  in 

memory  of  Mrs.  Whitwell  who  was 
intered  in  the  church  at  Norfolk, 
yo  S""  of  March,  1749." 
291 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

The  same  church  owns  a  flagon  with  a  crest,  "  a 
demi-man  ppr-crowned  in  dexter  three  ostrich 
feathers,"  given  by  Charles  Perkins  as  a  memorial 
to  his  wife,  Elizabeth,  who  died  in  1762. 

It  was  a  pleasant  thought  thus  to  renew  the 
memory  of  departed  friends  by  flagon,  and  plate, 
and  alms-basin — a  wiser  way,  one  feels,  than  the 
carving  of  long  epitaphs  on  gloomy  stones  sur- 
mounted by  skull  and  cross-bones.  How  often,  as 
we  read  these  dreary  tributes,  we  long  for  some 
shock  of  truth  to  nature,  among  all  this  decorous 
conventionalism!  What  tales  these  old  colonial 
graveyards  might  have  told  us  if  they  would! 
Here  lie  men  who,  perchance,  supped  with  Shake- 
speare, or  jested  with  Jonson  and  Marlow  at  The 
Mer7naid. 

Here  rest  gallants  who  closed  round  the  royal 
standard  on  the  fatal  field  of  Marston  Moor,  or 
danced  at  Buckingham  Palace  with  the  free 
and  fair  dames  of  the  merry  court  of  Charles 
Second  after  the  Restoration ;  but  not  a  word  of 
all  this  appears  on  the  stones  that  represent  them. 
Their  epitaphs  plaster  them  over  with  all  the 
Christian  virtues,  and  obscure  their  individual- 
ity as  completely  as  the  whitewash  brushes  of 
Cromwell's  soldiers  obliterated  the  dark,  quaintly 
carved  oak  of  the  cathedrals.  De  mortuis  nil  nisi 
bonum  makes  churchyard  literature  very  dull  read- 

292 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

ing,  when  it  should  be  the  most  interesting  and 
instructive  in  the  world.  Had  the  stones  set  forth 
the  lives  of  those  who  rest  beneath,  we  might  learn 
much  of  such  a  man  as  Sir  George  Somers,  whose 
strange  experiences  on  the  Sea-  Venture  and  his  ad- 
ventures on  the  Bermudas  make  me  want  to  know 
more  of  him.  I  want  to  know  what  caused  the 
trouble  between  him  and  Gates;  how  he  built  his 
cedar  ships;  how  he  looked,  and  walked,  and  talked; 
and  what  manner  of  man  he  was,  all  in  all.  In- 
stead of  gratifying  my  innocent  curiosity,  his 
tombstone  in  Whitchurch,  where  he  is  buried,  puts 
me  off  with  a  florid  verse  of  poor  poetry,  and  I  am 
little  better  helped  when  I  turn  to  the  records  of 
the  island  where  he  died.  Here  Capt.  Nathaniel 
Butler,  "  finding  accidentally"  (so  runs  the  old 
chronicle)  "  a  little  crosse  erected  in  a  by-place 
amongst  a  great  many  of  bushes,  understanding 
there  was  buried  the  heart  and  intrailes  of  Sir 
George  Somers,  hee  resolved  to  have  a  better 
memory  of  so  worthy  a  Souldier  than  that.  So, 
finding  also  a  great  Marble  Stone  brought  out  of 
England,  hee  caused  it  to  bee  wrought  hand- 
somely, and  laid  over  the  place,  which  he  invi- 
roned  with  a  square  wall  of  hewen  stone,  tombe- 
like,  wherein  hee  caused  to  be  graven  this  epitaph 
he  had  composed,  and  fixed  it  on  the  Marble  Stone 
and  thus  it  was: 

293 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

"  In  the  year  i  6  i  i 

Noble  Sir  George  Summers  went  hence  to  Heaven 

Whose  noble,  well-tried  worth  that  held  him  still  imploid 

Gave  him  the  knowledge  of  the  world  so  wide. 

Hence  't  was  by  heavens  decree  that  to  this  place 

He  brought  new  guests  and  name  to  mutual  grace. 

At  last  his  soule  and  body  being  to  part, 

He  here  bequeathed  his  entrailes  and  his  heart." 

Even  this  gives  us  more  information  about  the 
dead  than  most  of  the  epitaphs.  They  are  com- 
posed, as  a  rule,  with  Jonsonian  elaborateness,  and 
might  as  well  be  set  up  over  Rasselas,  as  over  those 
they  commemorate. 

On  the  tomb  of  President  Nelson  of  his  Ma- 
jesty's Council,  in  the  old  York  churchyard,  a 
pompous  inscription  announces:  "Reader,  if  you 
feel  the  spirit  of  that  exalted  ardor  which  aspires 
to  the  felicity  of  conscious  virtue,  animated  by 
those  consolations  and  divine  admonitions,  per- 
form the  task  and  expect  the  distinction  of  the 
righteous  man!"  The  '^distinction  of  the  righteous" 
is  a  delightful  phrase,  and  sets  forth  the  in- 
stinctive belief  of  the  Cavalier  in  aristocracy  in 
heaven. 

A  Latin  inscription  was  regarded  as  an  appro- 
priate tribute  to  the  learning  of  the  deceased, 
who,  had  his  ghost  walked  o'  nights,  might  have 
needed   to  brush  up  his  classics   to   make   quite 

294 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

sure   of   what    his    survivors    were    saying    about 
him. 

In  happy  contrast  to  the  frigidity  of  these  epi- 
taphs wherein  the  dead  languages  bury  their  dead, 
is  the  verse  written  by  his  son  over  the"Hon'''° 
Coll.  Digges,"  who  died  in  1744: 

"Digges,  ever  to  extremes  untaught  to  bend 
Enjoying  life,  yet  mindful  of  its  end 
In  thee  the  world  an  happy  mingling  saw 
Of  sprightly  humor  and  religious  awe." 

How  it  warms  our  hearts  to  find  the  word  humor 
on  a  gravestone !  It  takes  the  chill  out  of  death 
itself,  and  inspires  us  with  the  hope  that  this  most 
lovable  of  traits  may  stand  as  good  a  chance  of 
immortality  as  Faith,  Hope,  or  Charity. 

A  brief  and  business-like  epitaph  written  over 
Mistress  Lucy  Berkeley,  declares  that  "  She  left  be- 
hind her  5  children  viz.  2  Boys  and  3  Girls.  I 
shall  not  pretend  to  give  her  full  character;  it 
would  take  too  mucii  room  for  a  Grave- stone. 
Shall  only  say  she  never  neglected  her  duty  to  her 
Creator  in  publick  or  private.  She  was  charitable 
to  the  poor,  a  kind  Mistress,  Indulgent  Mother, 
and  Obedient  Wife." 

For  a  parallel  to  this  matron  who  neglected  no 
duty,  "publick  or  private,"  we  must  seek  the  tomb 
295 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

of  a  maiden.     On  the  crumbling  stone  the  tribute 
still  survives,  and  tells  that 

"  In  a  Well  grounded  Certainty  of  an 

Immortal  Resurrection 

Here  lyes  the  Remains  of  Elizabeth 

the  Daughter  of 

John  and  Catharine  Washington 

She  was  a  Maiden 

Virtuous  without  Reserv'^edness 

Wise  without  Affectation 

Beautiful  without  Knowing  it 

She  left  this  life  on  the  Fifth  day  of 

Feb"-  in  the  Year  MDCCXXXVI  in  the 

Twentieth  Year  of  her  age." 

One  more  epitaph  of  the  Colonial  Cavaliers 
I  must  quote  in  full,  because  it  alone,  of  all 
I  have  studied,  does  give  a  picture  of  the  man 
who  lies  under  it.  If  it  praises  him  too  much, 
it  is  to  be  set  down  to  his  credit  that  one  who 
knew  him  well  believed  it  all;  and  I  for  one 
wish  peace  to  the  dust  of  this  gallant  old  mar- 
iner who  sailed  the  seas  in  colonial  days.  Here 
he  lies,  sunk  at  his  moorings,  "  one  who  never 
struck  his  flag  while  he  had  a  shot  in  the  locker ; 
who  carried  sail  in  chace  till  all  was  blue;  in 
peace  whose  greatest  glory  was  a  staggering  top- 
sail breeze ;  in  war  to  bring  his  broadside  to  beat 
upon  the  enemy,  and  who,  when  signals  of  distress 
hove  out,  never  stood   his   course,  but  hauled   or 

296 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

tacked  or  wore  to  give  relief,  though  to  a  foe ;  who 
steered  his  little  bark  full  fifty  annual  cruises  over 
life's  tempestuous  ocean  and  moored  her  safe  in 
port  at  last;  where  her  timbers  being  crazy,  and 
having  sprung  a  leak  in  the  gale,  she  went  down 
with  a  clear  hawse.  If  these  traits  excite  in  the 
breast  of  humanity  that  common  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  the  departed — a  sigh — then  traveller  as 
thou  passest  this  wreck,  let  thine  be  borne  upon 
the  breeze  which  bends  the  grassy  covering  of  the 
grave  of  Old  Job  Pray.'' 

This  stone,  like  many  another  we  find  in  these 
old  brick-walled  Southern  burying-grounds,  brings 
a  smile  which  borders  close  upon  a  tear.  The 
very  spelling  and  lettering  in  these  primitive  in- 
scriptions seem  moss-grown  with  age,  and  tell  of 
generations  passed  away,  bearing  their  manners 
and  customs  before  them,  as  Mary  Stuart  bears  her 
head  on  the  charger  in  the  Abbotsford  picture. 
Here  on  one  crumbling  stone  we  read  of  a  matron 
who  hated  strife  with  a  capital  "  S"  and  loved  peace 
with  a  little  "  p. "  Here  we  read  the  touching  little 
life-history  of  the  young  wife  of  John  Page,  who 
"blest  her  said  Husband  with  a  sonn  and  a 
Daughter  and  departed  this  life,  the  twelfth  day 
of  November,  Anno  Dom  1702,  and  in  the  20th 
yeare  of  her  age." 

The  inscriptions  on  the  oldest  tombstones  are 
297 


The  Colonial  Cavalier. 

undecipherable.  The  bluestone  slab  under  the 
ruined  arch  at  Jamestown  clasped  by  the  roots 
of  the  sycamore  was  so  broken  and  defaced  even 
when  Lossing  visited  it  that  nothing- remained  but 
the  shadowy  date,  i6oS.  But  in  the  earliest  in- 
scriptions that  survive,  we  are  struck  by  the  virile 
and  nervous  English.  It  smacks  of  "great 
Eliza's  golden  day."     A  fragment  of  one  runs: 

"O  Death!  all-eloquent,  you  only  prove 
What  dust  we  dote  on  when  't  is  man  we  love." 

Rut  finest  of  all  is  the  noble  dirge,  sung  over 
Bacon's  lifeless  body  by  some  one  whose  name 
will  never  now  be  surely  known,  since  he  dis- 
guised his  identity,  prompted  by  a  wise  dread 
of  Berkeley's  malignant  revenge,  and  states  that 
after  Bacon's  death  "he  was  bemoaned  in  these 
following  lines,  drawn  by  the  man  that  waited 
upon  his  person  as  it  is  said,  and  who  attended  his 
corpse  to  their  burial  place."  Whoever  the  writer 
was,  and  a  high  authority  designates  him  as  a 
man  named  Cotton,  dweller  at  Acquia  Creek,  it  is 
very  sure  that  no  serving-man  composed  these 
lines,  which  are  like  an  echo  of  the  age  that  gave 
us  Lycidas: 

"Who  is't  must  plead  our  cause?    Nor  trump  nor  drum 
Nor  deputations  ;  these,  alas  !  are  dumb ; 
And  can  not  speak.     Our  arms,  though  ne'er  so  strong, 
Will  want  the  aid  of  his  commanding  tongue. 
298 


The  Colonial   Cavalier. 

"  Here  let  him  rest ;  while  we  this  truth  report 
He's  gone  from  hence  unto  a  higher  court 
To  plead  his  cause,  where  he  by  this  doth  know, 
Whether  to  Caisar  he  was  friend  or  foe." 

These  closing  words  may  well  form  the  epitaph 
written  over  the  Colonial  Cavalier.  He  is  gone 
"from  hence"  unto  a  higher  court  —  gone  from 
this  world  forever.  His  open-handed  hospitality, 
his  reckless  profusion,  his  chivalry  to  women, 
his  quick-tempered,  sword-thrusting  honor,  arc  as 
obsolete  as  his  lace  ruffles,  his  doublet  and  jerkin, 
his  buckles  and  jewels  and  feathers.  We  are  falleii 
on  a  prosaic  age,  and  it  is  only  in  our  dreams  of 
the  past  that  we  conjure  up,  like  a  gay  decoration 
against  the  neutral  background  of  modern  life,  the 
figure  of  "The  Colonial  Cavalier." 
299 


-^^te^v 


w- 


NOTES 


NOTES. 


Page  io. 

"  Virgitiia  and  Maryland  reflected  the  Cavalier ^ 

The  Colonial  Cavalier  was,  as  Bancroft  has  justly  observed, 
"simply  a  transplanted  PInglishman  ; "  but  a  new  soil  often  works 
strange  transformations  in  the  plant,  and  it  was  well  that  the  Anglo- 
American  type  was  transplanted  at  just  the  historical  moment  it 
was,  while  yet  the  traditions,  at  least  of  the  golden  age  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  survived,  before  loyalty  had  been  weakened  by  the  vices 
of  Stuart  royalty,  and  while  distance  could  still  lend  a  glamour 
to  institutions  which,  inspected  too  close  at  hand,  showed  their 
pinchbeck.  If  the  cavalier  in  America  continued  loyal,  simple, 
and  comparatively  uncorrupt  long  after  these  qualities  had  begun 
to  wane  among  his  contemporaries  in  England,  he  owed  it  largely 
to  the  wholesome  influences  of  his  new  land. 

Page  12.  —  "  Half  naked  in  the  sun." 

I  have  seen  negroes  from  sixteen  to  twenty  years  old  with  not 
an  article  of  clothing  but  a  loose  shirt  descending  half  way  down 
their  thighs,  waiting  at  table,  where  there  were  ladies,  without 
apparent  embarrassment. —  ChastcUux. 

Page  21.  —  "James  Cittie.^'' 

Sir  Dudley  Carleton  wrote ;  "  Captain  Newport  is  come  from 
our  late  adventurers,  having  left  them  on  an  island  in  the  midst  of 
a  great  river.  Here  they  have  fortified  and  built  a  small  town 
which  they  call  Jamestowne,  and  so  they  date  their  letters ;  but 
the  towne,  methincks,  hath  no  graceful  name."  Whatever  we  may 
think  of  Jamestown,  it  is  a  relief  to  know  that  the  settlement 
escaped  the  proposed  title  of  Jacobopolis. 

303 


Notes. 

Page  27.  —  "  Nor  matched  my  floor-hoard." 

The  earliest  floors  were  such  as  are  still  seen  in  pioneer  settle- 
ments at  the  far  West,  and  known  as  puncheon  floors,  made  of 
logs  with  the  faces  roughly  trimmed  with  an  axe.  In  the  absence 
of  sawed  timber,  these  were  a  necessity  in  the  cabins  of  the  first 
colonists. 

Page  40.  —  "  Welcome  at  a  private  house." 

A  traveller  in  the  year  1700  bears  his  testimony  that  "the  mer- 
chants of  South  Carolina  are  fair,  frank  traders,  very  courteous, 
live  very  noble  in  their  houses,  and  give  very  genteel  entertain- 
ment to  all  strangers  and  others  that  come  to  visit  them." 

Page  53.  —  "■A  shadowy  divinity." 

In  a  review  of  the  "  Colonial  Cavalier,"  which  appeared  in  the 
"  William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly,"  the  reviewer  states  that 
this  "  flame "  of  Governor  Nicholson  was  undoubtedly  Martha 
Burwell,  who  married  Henry  Armistead.  My  statement  was 
based  upon  the  authority  of  Bishop  Meade  in  "Old  Churches 
and  Families  of  Virginia." 

Page  91. — "  Roquelaire." 

Mrs.  Alice  Morse  Earle  differs  from  Scharf  in  regard  to  this 
word.  She  describes  it,  on  the  authority  of  an  old  "Treatise  on 
the  Modes,"  as  "  a  short  abridgment  or  compendium  of  a  cloak 
which  is  dedicated  to  the  Duke  of  Roquelaure ; "  and  this  roque- 
laure  she  traces  through  the  history  of  colonial  costume,  and  finds 
it  fashioned  out  of  cloth  and  silk  of  all  the  hues  of  the  rainbow, 
but  notes  none  of  oiled  linen,  nor  any  used  as  a  waterproof. 

Page  104.  — "  Tobacco  of  the  Old  Dominion." 

Tobacco  was  the  first  offering  of  the  New  World  to  the  Old. 
In  the  year  of  the  discovery  of  America  the  seamen  sent  out  by 
Columbus  to  explore  the  island  of  Cuba  brought  back  a  report 
that  they  had  seen  natives  carrying  a  lighted  firebrand  in  their 
mouths,  and  perfuming  themselves  with  strange   herbs.     When 

304 


Notes. 

Raleigh  in  the  next  century  came  over,  he  carried  home  the  curi- 
ous brown  weed  as  part  of  his  cargo ;  and  this  alone  remained  to 
him  as  a  reward  for  his  labors,  for  we  learn  that  "  he  drank  a  pipe 
of  tobacco  a  little  before  he  went  to  the  scaffolde." 

Once  introduced  into  Europe,  the  use  of  tobacco  spread  like  an 
epidemic.  In  vain  preachers  and  magistrates  combined  against  it. 
Burton  wrote :  "  Tobacco,  divine,  rare,  superexcellent  tobacco, 
which  goes  far  beyond  all  the  panaceas,  potable  gold,  and  philos- 
opher's stones,  is  a  sovereign  remedy  in  all  diseases ;  but  as  it  is 
commonly  abused  by  most  men  which  take  it  as  tinkers  do  ale, 
'tis  a  plague,  a  mischief,  a  violent  purge  of  goods,  lands,  health ; 
hellish,  devilish,  and  damned  tobacco,  the  ruin  and  overthrow  of 
body  and  soul." 

King  James  opposed  it  with  less  eloquence,  but  with  a  homely 
and  praiseworthy  directness,  in  his  "Counterblast  to  Tobacco." 
"  Is  it  not,"  he  writes,  "  the  greatest  sin  of  all  that  you  should  dis- 
able yourselves  to  this  shameful  imbecility;  that  you  are  not  able 
to  ride  or  walk  the  journey  of  a  Jew's  Sabbath  but  you  must  have 
a  reeky  coal  brought  you  from  the  next  pot-house  to  kindle  your 
tobacco  with  ?" 

With  such  an  eager  demand  for  the  brown  weed,  it  is  natural 
that  the  colonists  should  have  thought  they  had  found  in  the 
tobacco-plant  a  treasure  only  second  to  the  gold  they  had  sought 
in  vain.  In  fact,  they  had  found  a  curse  only  less  disastrous  than 
that  gold  would  have  proved. 

Tobacco  exhausted  the  soil,  discouraged  trade,  kept  the  planters 
separated  on  their  great  plantations,  and  tobacco  ivas  the  root  of 
slavery. 

An  old  Virginia  seal  bears  on  one  side  the  English  arms;  on  the 
other,  a  figure  of  Britannia  receiving  the  homage  of  an  Indian 
princess  who,  on  bended  knee,  is  presenting  her  with  a  bunch  of 
the  tobacco  leaves.  This  was  a  just  picture  of  the  attitude  of  the 
two  countries. 

Page  112.  —  "  His  friend'' s  periagtia" 

"I  will  carry  Sally  Nichols  in  the  green  chair  to  New  Quarter, 
where  your   periagua  will    meet  us,  automaton-like,  of    its   own 

305 


Notes. 

accord.  You  know  I  once  had  a  wagon  which  moved  itself. 
Cannot  we  construct  a  boat  which  shall  row  itself?"  —  Extract 
from  a  letter  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 

Page  136.  —  "  Many  a  lesson  iji  -woodcraft" 

Among  these  ISeverley  notes  the  following  :  In  the  morning, 
having  agreed  on  a  rendezvous  for  the  night,  they  (the  Indians) 
separate,  each  making  his  own  way  through  the  woods  that  so  the 
grass  or  leaves,  being  but  singly  prest,  may  rise  again. 

When  they  meet  with  water  too  deep  to  ford,  they  make  tempo- 
rary boats.  First  they  gash  a  birch-tree  twice  round  the  trunk,  at 
the  proper  length  for  the  canoe,  then  slit  it  lengthwise  from  end 
to  end.  Then  they  open  the  bark  with  their  tomahawks  and  slip 
it  off  whole.  This  they  pry  open  in  the  middle  and  sew  up  the 
pointed  ends,  daubing  the  seams  with  clay  or  mud. 

Page  137. 
"  Robbed  him  of  the  one  and  crowded  hhn  out  of  the  other." 

The  righteous  resentment  of  the  Indian  is  well  set  forth  in  the 
famous  speech  of  Logan,  the  Indian  chief.  Whether  genuine  or 
spurious,  it  speaks  the  sentiments  of  many  of  his  race. 

"  I  appeal  to  any  white  man  to  say  if  ever  he  entered  Logan's 
cabin  hungry  and  he  gave  him  not  meat;  if  ever  he  came  cold 
and  naked  and  he  clothed  him  not.  During  the  course  of  the  last 
long  and  bloody  war  Logan  remained  idle  in  his  cabin,  an  advo- 
cate for  peace.  Such  was  my  love  for  the  whites  that  my  country- 
men pointed  as  they  passed,  and  said ;  '  Logan  is  the  friend  of 
white  men.'  I  had  even  thought  to  have  lived  among  you,  but  for 
the  injuries  of  one  man.  Colonel  Cresap,  the  last  spring,  in  cold 
blood  and  unprovoked,  murdered  all  the  relations  of  Logan,  even 
my  women  and  children.  There  runs  not  a  drop  of  my  blood  in 
the  veins  of  any  living  creature.  This  called  on  me  for  revenge. 
I  have  fought  it.  I  have  killed  many;  I  have  fully  glutted  my 
vengeance.  For  my  country  I  rejoice  at  the  beams  of  peace. 
But  do  not  harbor  a  thought  that  mine  is  the  joy  of  fear.  Logan 
never  felt  fear.  He  will  not  turn  on  his  heel  to  save  his  life. 
Who  is  there  to  mourn  for  Logan  ?     Not  one  ! " 

306 


Notes. 

Page  137.  —  '■^Jumble  of  a  new  religion" 

How  deftly  the  English  turned  religion  to  political  uses  may  be 
inferred  from  a  naive  suggestion  in  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  William 
Fairfax  to  Washington.  "  I  will  not,"  he  says,  "  doubt  your  having 
public  prayers  in  the  camp,  especially  when  the  Indian  families 
are  your  guests,  that  they,  seeing  your  plain  manner  of  worship, 
may  have  their  curiosity  to  be  informed  why  we  do  not  use  the 
ceremonies  of  the  French,  which,  being  well  explained  to  their 
understandings,  will  more  and  more  dispose  them  to  receive  our 
baptism,  and  unite  in  strict  bonds  of  cordial  friendship." 

Page  139. 
"  The  savages  had  learned  of  them  and  bettered  their  instructors." 

The  story  of  early  Virginia  written  by  an  Indian  would  be  a 
most  valuable  contribution  to  history.  We  should  have  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  terror  and  dismay  of  his  ancestors  when  a  gigantic 
canoe  moved  by  sails  as  high  as  trees  appeared  in  their  waters, 
and  on  its  deck  stood  a  ghastly  crew  with  white  faces  and  strange 
raiment.  W^e  should  read  how  the  brave  Indians  prepared  to 
defend  their  wives  and  their  wigwams,  but  how,  when  they  drew 
their  bows  and  arrows,  they  were  met  by  a  blast  of  fire  and  a  roar 
of  thunder  from  the  strangers'  canoes. 

The  story  would  tell  how  they  strove  to  placate  these  supernat- 
ural visitors  with  maize  and  tobacco  and  vvampuni,  and  even  gave 
their  beautiful  Princess  Matoax,  Pocahontas,  in  marriage  to  one  of 
the  Pale  Faces;  but  the  new-comers  were  treacherous  and  would 
lie  much.  The  first  summer  after  the  strangers  had  landed  they 
were  sick  and  starving;  and  when  their  captain  came  to  Powhatan 
for  corn,  that  noble  chieftain  gave  it  him,  though  it  would  have 
been  a  boon  to  the  Redmen  had  he  let  these  invaders  die  out  and 
leave  no  trace,  like  the  strangers  at  Croatan. 

Five  seasons  passed.  The  Blossoming  changed  to  Corn-Earing, 
and  the  Highest  Sun  passed  into  the  Fall  of  the  Leaf;  and  then 
came  the  dreary  Cohonks,  when  the  great  black  birds  flap  their 
wings  over  the  white  snow,  and  utter  their  hoarse  cry.  The  round 
year  had  turned,  and  when  the  Moon  of  Strawberries  was  come 

307 


Notes. 

again,  more  canoes  came  and  more  Pale  Faces.  Vet  still  the 
Indian  might  have  driven  them  from  his  native  country,  but  he 
staid  his  hand.  The  white  man  spoke  him  fair ;  and  when  the 
stranger,  Rolfe,  married  Matoax,  it  seemed  that  the  two  races 
might  join  together  and  share  peacefully  the  land,  though  of 
course  only  the  Indian  had  any  right  to  it.  But  as  the  whites 
waxed  strong,  they  waxed  insolent.  It  was  now  not  even  ask  and 
take,  but  take  first  and  ask  afterward,  or,  if  an  Indian  claimed  his 
rights,  point  at  him  that  black  thunder-and-lightning  weapon. 

Things  grew  all  the  time  worse.  The  Indians  were  made 
slaves,  and  forced  to  hunt  and  fish  for  their  masters ;  but  this 
time  the  tyrants  went  too  far,  for  the  Indians  learned  to  load  the 
lightning  and  not  to  be  afraid  when  the  thunder  sounded;  and  all 
this  time  a  plot  was  ripening.  The  Redmen  were  so  patriotic 
that  they  could  all  be  trusted  not  to  betray  the  conspiracy,  and  for 
four  years  tribe  after  tribe  was  brought  into  the  plan.  Powhatan 
had  died,  and  the  crafty  Opechancanough  was  king.  Fifteen  years 
had  gone  by  since  the  invaders  first  landed,  and  now  their  pali- 
sades covered  the  ground  all  along  the  noble  Powhatan  River;  and 
an  Indian  could  not  chase  the  deer  in  his  own  hunting-grounds,  or 
fish  in  his  familiar  streams,  without  danger  of  being  slain  by  a 
crack  of  a  gun  in  the  bushes.  Still  Opechancanough  waited.  At 
last,  just  between  Cohonks  and  Budding  Time,  the  brave  Indian, 
Nematlanow,  whom  the  white  men  called  Jack  o'  the  Feather, 
having  killed  a  Pale  Face,  was  taken  prisoner  and  murdered,  with- 
out even  being  put  to  the  torture  as  such  a  brave  had  a  right  to 
demand.  The  measure  of  the  white  man's  sin  was  full,  and  the 
Redman's  vengeance  fell.  Suddenly,  without  warning,  they  fell 
upon  the  foolish  Pale  Faces,  who,  though  so  much  stronger  than 
those  they  called  savages,  let  themselves  be  trapped  like  the  silly 
beasts  of  the  forests.  The  attack  was  a  complete  success.  In  a 
single  day  the  Redmen  slew  three  hundred  and  forty-seven  en- 
emies of  their  country.  The  records  of  the  English  still  tell  the 
stoiy  of  their  shameful  defeat. 

It  was  a  glorious  triumph,  and  but  for  the  dastardly  treachery 
of  one  Indian,  who  allowed  himself  to  be  won  over  by  the  false 
favors  of  his  master  to  betray  the  plot  to  him,  the  entire  settlement 

308 


Notes. 

would  have  been  destroyed,  and  the  Redman  would  once  more 
have  been  undisturbed  in  the  possession  of  his  country- 
Tims  the  Indian's  story  would  run,  and  very  different  it  would 
sound  (like  the  lion's  in  the  fable)  from  the  accounts  of  Smith  and 
Percy  and  Pony.  But  [jcrhaps  it  would  come  quite  as  near  the 
truth  as  theirs. 

P.\GE  14S.  —  "  Hidiiii^'-  on  liorseback." 
"They  (the  Virginians)  are  such  lovers  of  riding  that  almost 
every  ordinary  person  keeps  a  horse ;  and  I  have  known  some 
spend  the  morning  in  ranging  several  miles  in  the  woods  to  find 
and  catch  their  horses  only  to  ride  two  or  three  miles  to  church,  to 
the  court-house,  or  to  a  horse-race,  where  they  generally  appoint 
to  meet  upon  business,  and  are  more  certain  of  finding  those  that 
they  want  to  speak  or  deal  with  than  at  their  home."  —  Hugh  Jones. 

Page  151. 
"  Me7i  wJio  loved  horses  of  course  loved  horse-racing.'' 

The  earliest  notice  of  racing  in  Colonial  Virginia  is  in  a  quaint 
order  made  by  the  court  of  York  County,  on  September  10,  1674. 

"  James  Bullocke,  a  Taylor,  haveing  made  a  race  for  his  mare  to 
runn  w'th  a  horse  belonging  to  Mr.  Mathew  Slader  for  twoe  thou- 
sand pounds  of  tobacco  and  caske,  it  being  contrary  to  Law  for  a 
Labourer  to  make  a  race,  being  a  sport  only  for  Gentlemen,  is 
fined  for  the  same  one  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco  and  caske. 

"  Whereas  Mr.  ISLithew  Slader  &  James  Bullocke,  by  condition 
under  the  hand  and  seale  of  the  said  Slader,  that  his  horse  should 
runn  out  of  the  way  that  I>ullock's  mare  might  win,  w'ch  is  an 
apparent  cheate,  is  ord'ed  to  be  putt  in  the  stocks  &  there  sitt  the 
space  of  one  houre."  (.See  "Virginia  Magazine  of  History  and 
Biography,"  Vol.  ii.  No.  3.) 

Page  164.  —  "  Beauty  Retire." 
A  song  set  to  music  by  Samuel  Pcpys,  and  taken  from  Dav- 
enant's  Second  Part  of  "The  Siege  of  Rhodes"  (Act  iv.  Scene  2). 
Mr.  Pepys  was  so  much  pleased  with  this  musical  effort  that  he 
had  his  portrait  painted  with  the  music  of  "  Beauty  Retire"  in  his 
hand. 

309 


Notes. 

Page  176.  —  "  Sti-altk  of  one's  sd/" 

A  delightfully  Dogberryish  Act  of  1658  declares  that,  "whereas 
the  act  for  runaway  servants  appoints  only  the  punishment  of  the 
said  servants  and  the  pennaltie  of  entertaineing  them,  but  pro- 
vides no  way  for  the  discovery  of  them,  it  is  enacted  and  ordained 
that  the  master  of  everie  such  runaway  shall  cutt,  or  cause  to  be 
cutt,  the  hair  of  all  such  runaways  close  above  the  ears  whereby 
they  may  be  with  more  ease  discovered  and  apprehended." 

The  statute  fails  to  set  forth  exactly  how  the  hair  is  to  be  caught. 

Page   176.  —  "  Forced  into  cruelty  by  the  logic  of  events." 

Law  of  1669.  "Be  it  enacted  and  declared  by  this  Grand 
Assembly  if  any  slave  resist  his  master  (or  other,  by  his  master's 
order  correcting  him)  and  by  the  extremity  of  the  correction 
should  chance  to  die  That  his  death  shall  not  be  accompted 
ffelony  but  the  master  or  that  other  person  appointed  by  the 
master  to  punish  him  be  acquit  from  molestation,  since  it  cannot 
be  presumed  that  prepensed  malice  .  .  .  Should  induce  any  man 
to  destroy  his  own  estate." 

Page  179. 

"If  they  did  not  buy  slaves,  they  sold  them." 

Mr.  Fltzhugli  to  Mr.  Jackson,  of  Piscataway,  in  New  England; 

February  nth,  1682-3. 

Mr.  Jackson,  —  As  to  your  proposal  about  the  bringing  in 
Negroes  next  fall,  I  have  this  to  offer  &  you  may  communicate  the 
same  to  your  owners  &  Employers  that  I  will  deal  with  them  for 
so  many  as  shall  amount  to  50,000  lbs.  Tob"  &  Cask,  which  will  be 
about  20  hhds.,  under  the  condition  &  at  these  ages  &  prices  fol- 
lowing, to  say  —  to  give  3,000  lbs.  Tob"  for  every  Negro  boy  or 
girl  that  shall  be  between  the  ages  of  Seven  &  Eleven  years  old ;  to 
give  4,000  lbs.  Tob°  for  every  youth  or  girl  that  shall  be  between 
the  age  of  11  &  1 5,  &  to  give  5,000  lbs.  of  Tob"  for  every  young 
man  or  woman  that  shall  be  above  15  years  of  age  &  not  exceed 
24,  the  said  negroes  to  be  delivered  at  my  landing  some  time  in 
310 


Notes. 

September  next  &  I  to  have  notice  whether  they  will  so  agree 
some  time  in  August  next.  And  I  do  assure  you  and  so  you  may 
acquaint  them  that  upon  delivery  &  my  receipt  of  the  Negroes, 
according  to  the  ages  above  mentioned  and  that  they  be  sound  & 
healthfurat  their  Delivery,  I  will  give  you  such  sufficient  caution 
for  the  payment  of  the  Tob»  accordingly  the  20.h  Dec^  then  next 
following  as  shall  be  approved  of.  The  ages  of  the  Negroes  to 
be  judg'd  and  determin'd  by  two  or  three  such  honest  &  reason- 
able men  here  as  your  self  shall  nominate  &  appoint.  The  whole 
of  sum  of  the  Tob°  to  be  paid  in  the  compass  of  twenty  miles, 
perhaps  not  so  remote. 

Your  wff. 
(See  "  William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly,"  Vol.  il.  No.  3.) 

Page  183.  —  "  They  repair  to  the  tobacco-houses''' 
Hugh  Jones  writes  thus  of  tobacco  culture:  "  When  it  is  grown 
up,  they  top  it,  or  nip  off  the  head,  succour  it,  or  cut  off  the  ground 
leaves,  weed  it,  hill  it,  and  when  ripe,  they  cut  it  down  about  six 
or  eight  leaves  on  a  stalk,  which  they  carry  into  airy  tobacco- 
houses.  After  it  is  withered  a  little  in  the  sun,  there  it  is  hung  to 
dry  on  sticks  as  paper  at  the  paper-mills.  When  it  is  in  proper 
case,  and  the  air  neither  too  moist  nor  too  dry,  they  strike  it,  or 
take' it  down,  then  cover  it  up  in  bulk,  or  a  great  heap,  where  it 
lies  till  they  have  leisure  or  occasion  to  stem  it,— that  is,  pull  the 
leaves  from  the  stalk,  or  strip  it  (that  is,  take  out  the  great  fibres) 
and  tie  it  up  in  hands,  and  so  by  degrees  /r/c.'  or  press  it  with 
proper  engines  into  great  hogsheads  containing  from  six  to  eleven 
hundred  pounds." 

Page  206.  — 'M  -worthy  bishop  to  such  a  church." 
A  Mr.  Atkinson,  writing  of  Washington,  says:  "He  is  a  soldier 
—  a  warrior;  he  is  a  modest  man,  sensible,  speaks  little,  in  action 
cool,  like  a  bishop  at  his  prayers:' 

Page  212.  —  "  The  church  at  Edeuton,  N.  C" 
Colonel  Byrd  of  Westover  writes  of  the  Carolinians :    "  They 
do  not  know  Sunday  from  any  other  day,  any  more  than  Robinson 

3" 


Notes. 

Crusoe  did,  which  would  give  them  a  great  advantage  were  they 
given  to  be  industrious.  But  they  keep  so  many  Sabbaths  every 
week  that  their  disregard  of  the  seventh  day  has  no  manner  of 
cruelty  in  it  either  to  servants  or  cattle." 

Byrd  goes  on  to  suggest  that  the  Virginia  clergy  might  employ 
their  time  profitably  by  visiting  these  pagans  once  in  two  or  three 
years.  '"T  would  look  a  little  apostolical,  and  they  might  hope  to 
be  requited  for  it  hereafter,  if  that  be  not  thought  too  long  to 
tarry  for  their  reward." 

Page  224.  —  "  --^  race  of  readers." 
A  Boston  merchant  conveyed  to  Harvard  College  in  1649  ^ 
copy  of  Stephens'  "  Thesaurus."  The  gift  was  accompanied  by  a 
written  condition  that  the  volume  should  be  returned  in  the  event 
of  his  ever  having  a  child  studious  of  Greek  and  desirous  of  pos- 
sessing that  book.  As  he  did  afterward  have  such  a  child,  the 
book  was  given  back  to  him. 

Page  224. 
"■  Absence  of  the  reading  habit  (ended  to  develop  action" 

Patrick  Henry  one  day  met  in  a  book  store  a  Mr.  Wormley 
whose  studious  habits  might  have  gained  him  the  sobriquet  of 
"  Book-Wormley."  "Still  buying  books!"  exclaimed  Henry. 
"Take  my  word  for  it,  we  are  too  old  to  read  books.  Read 
men ! " 

Page  229. 

"  Attempts  by  private  perso7is  to  foiiitd public  schools." 
A  mysterious  person  signing  himself  "Dust  and  Ashes"  sent 
over  in  the  early  days  five  hundred  pounds  for  the  instruction  of 
the  natives  in  religion  and  "civility."  What  a  theme  for  a  Haw- 
thorne that  simple  entry  presents  in  its  suggestion  of  repentance, 
remorse,  and  desire  for  atonement  without  self-revelation  ! 

Page  229.  —  "  Acts  of  Assembly." 
In   1 619  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  obtained  a  grant  of  ten   thousand 
acres  of  land  to  be  laid  off  for  the  University  of  Henrico,  which 

312 


Notes. 

was  intended  for  the  education  of  a  select  number  of  Indians  as 
well  as  of  the  English  youth ;  but  the  massacre  of  1622  was  the 
doom  of  the  enterprise.  In  the  list  of  the  murdered  near  the 
Henrico  settlement  we  read:  "  Slaine  of  the  College  people  17." 

Page  237.  —  "Master  Bland." 
Mr.  Charles  Washington  Coleman,  through  whose  courtesy  I  was 
enabled  to  see  many  interesting  documents  and  relics  in  Williams- 
burg, writes:  "It  may  interest  you  to  know  that  '  Master  Bland' 
was  Col.  Theodorick  Bland,  Jr.,  an  uncle  of  John  Randolph  of 
Roanoke.  Whether  or  not  'he  shared  the  character  of  his  young 
countrymen  abroad,'  he  graduated  in  medicine  from  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  returned  to  Virginia  shortly  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  Revolution,  was  instrumental  in  replacing  the  gunpowder  in 
the  magazine  here,  which  Lord  Dunmore  had  removed  therefrom, 
was  of  General  Washington's  military  family  in  the  first  years  of 
the  war,  then  a  member  of  the  old  Congress  and  of  the  first  ses- 
sion of  the  new,  dying  in  New  York  in  1790." 

Page  249. 
"  Punislnnents  cruel  and  tinwarrantable  everywhere." 

The  petition  of  Dr.  Alexander  Leighton  humbly  sheweth  that 
on  F'eb.  17,  1630,  he  was  apprehended,  coming  from  sermon,  by  a 
high  commission  warrant,  and  dragged  along  the  street  with  bills 
and  staves  to  London  House.  That  the  gaoler  of  Newgate,  being 
sent  for,  clapped  him  in  irons,  and  carried  him  into  a  loathsome 
and  ruinous  dog-hole,  full  of  rats  and  mice,  that  had  no  light  but  a 
little  grate,  and,  the  roof  being  uncovered,  the  snow  and  rain  beat 
in  upon  him,  having  no  bedding,  nor  place  to  make  a  fire  but  the 
ruins  of  an  old  "smoaky  "  chimney. 

After  many  weeks  of  this  treatment  sentence  was  passed  upon 
him,  and  he  received  thirty-si.v  stripes  upon  his  naked  back  w^ith  a 
threefold  cord,  his  hands  being  tied  to  a  stake,  and  then  stood  two 
hours  in  the  pillory  before  he  was  branded  in  the  face,  his  nose 
slit,  and  his  ears  cut  off. 


313 


List   of  Authorities 

Alden's  Collection  of  American  Epitaphs  and  Inscriptions 

Alsop's  Character  of  the  Province  of  Maryland 

Anburey's  Travels  through  the  Interior  Parts  of  America 

Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States 

Beverley's  History  and  Present  State  of  Virginia 

Bozman's  History  of  Maryland 

Browne's  Maryland 

Buck's  Old  Plate 

Burwell  Papers,  The 

Byrd's  Westover  Manuscripts 

Campbell's  History  of  the  Colony  and  Ancient  Dominion 
of  Virginia 

Chastellux's  Travels  in  North  America 

Cooke's  Virginia 

Doyle's  English  Colonies  in  America 

Fisher's  The  Colonial  Era 

Hammond's  Leah  and  Rachel ;  or,  The  Two  Fruitful  Sis- 
ters, Virginia  and  Maryland 

Hamor's  True  Discourse  of  the  Present  Estate  of  Virginia 

Hening's  Virginia  Statutes  at  Large 

Hildreth's  History  of  the  United  States 

Howe's  Historical  Collections  of  Virginia 

Howell's  State  Trials 

Irving 's  Life  of  Washington 

Jefferson's  Notes  on  the  State  of  Virginia 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  Life  and  Letters  of 

Jones'  True  Relation  of  the  Present  State  of  Virginia 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  Life  and  Letters  of 

3^5 


Appendix. 

Lossing's  Pictorial  Field-Book  of  the  Revolution 

McMaster's  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States 

Madison,  Mrs.  Dolly,  Life  and  Letters  of 

Maryland  Archives 

Magazine  of  American  History 

Meade's  Old  Churches,  Ministers,  and  Familiesof  Virginia 

Moore's  History  of  North  Carolina 

Purchas  :  His  Pilgrimes 

Ramsay's  History  of  South  Carolina 

Ridgely's  Annals  of  Annapolis 

Robin,  Abbe,  New  Travels  through  North  America 

Rowland's  Life  of  George  Mason 

Scharf 's  Chronicles  of  Baltimore 

Smith's  General  History  of  Virginia 

Smith's  True  Relation  of  Virginia 

Tyler's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry 

Tyler's  History  of  American  Literature 

Virginia  Historical  Register,  Ed.  by  W.  Maxwell 

Virginia  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography 

Whitaker's  Good  Newes  from  Virginia 

William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly 

Wirt's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry 

316 


IN  UNIFORM  STYLE.  EXQUISITELY  ILLUSTRATED. 


Three  Heroines  of  New  England  Romance. 

I.    PRISCILLA,  by  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford. 
II.    AGNES    SURRIAGE,  by  Alice  Brown. 
III.    MARTHA  HILTON,  by  LOUISE  IMOGEN  Gl'iney. 

Willi  notes  on  the  towns  in  which  they  lived,  and  eighty-seven 
illustrations,  including  numerous  full-page  pictures  by  Edmund 
H.  Garrett. 

I'iuio.    Cloth,  (Jilt  top,  $2.00;   full  morocco, 
gilt  t-dae.s,  $~t.SO. 


A  charming  volume,  dealing  with  the  courtship  and  marriage 
of  three  famous  beauties  of  old  colonial  times. 

Mr.  Garrett's  notes  describe  and  illustrate  the  famous  old 
towns  of  Plymouth,  Marblehead,  and  Portsmouth. 

The  old  stories  are  told  again  with  renewed  sweetness  by  the 
pens  of  three  New  England  women  of  to-day.  —  A't-zv  En,i:;land 
Magazine. 

Gracefully  written  and  felicitously  illustrated.  —  TV/..'  Literary 
World. 

One  of  the  most  dainty  and  altogether  pleasing  examples  of 
symmetrical  and  harmonious  book-making  we  have  seen. —  The 
Indepeiidciit. 

The  romantic  stories  of  these  three  beautiful  women  are  placed 
in  a  book  bound  in  artistic  manner, —  in  delicate  gray,  pale  blue, 
or  white  with  gold,  —  a  volume  which  would  have  been  a  wonder 
to  plainly  nurtured  Priscilla,  whose  sole  books  were  doubtless  her 
leather-bound  Bible  and  her  ill-printed,  parchment-covered  psalm- 
book.  Even  the  lu.xury-loving  Lady  Wentworth  knew  naught  of 
such  daintiness.  —  /^//Vt'  Morse  Earlc,  in  ike  Book  Buyer. 


m  tlK  Sutijor  of  "(ITljc  Colonial  Cabalirr/' 

The  Head  of  a  Hundred. 

Being  an  Account  of  Certain  Passages  in  the  Life  of  Humphrey 

Huntoon,  Esq.,  sometyme  an  Orticer  in  the 

Colony  of  Virginia. 

Edited  by  MAUD  WILDER  GOODWIN. 

IGmo.    Cloth,  extra,  tjilt  top,  $1.25. 

A  book  of  a  thousand.  One  of  those  strong,  sweet  stories  that 
entertain  and  refresh  the  reader.  //  is  a  pleasure  to  cotunieiid  such 
a  book  as  this,  and  it  will  give  pleasure  to  ail  who  read  it.  —  Boston 
Journal. 

A  charming  romance,  narrated  easily,  and  set  against  a  historic 
background.  — Literary  World. 

The  book  is  written  in  a  fresh,  charming  style,  and  is  not  over- 
burdened with  pictures  of  "colonial  life,"  as  are  so  many  chron- 
ological stories.  Anything  so  wholesome  and  so  old-fashioned 
in  the  simplicity  of  its  story-telling  is  gratifying  and  refreshing.  — 
Springfield  Republican. 

The  book  is  sweet  and  true,  and  charming  for  its  S7veetness  and 
truth.  We  have  read  it  with  a  delight  not  commonly  felt  in  these 
times,  when  every  day  brings  forth  a  new  novel.  Idyllic  in  its 
whole  structure,  and  lovely  with  the  spirit  of  high  endeavor  and 
devotion,  it  has  in  it  a  beauty  that  is  neither  evanescent  nor 
commonplace.  —  A''e7v  York  Times. 

Holds  its  reader  fast  from  the  first  page  to  the  end. —  77/1? 
Indef'endent. 

One  of  the  best  of  the  colonial  novels. — Boston  Gazette. 

So  naturally  told  that  one  seems  to  be  reading  the  veritable 
memoirs  of  a  man  of  the  time.  ...  A  charming  book,  worthy 
to  rank  with  the  best  romantic  fction  of  the  year,  at  home  and 
abroad.  —  A''ew  York  World. 

A  genuine  and  most  delightful  romance.  —  Boston  Home 
yournal.  

Little,  Brown,  and  Company, 

254  Washington  Street,  Boston. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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